Emotional Baggage –
- What is it?
- Where does it come from?
- How did it get there?
- How do you let go of it?
- Do you even want to let go of it?
- Have you ever wanted to do something, yet that small voice inside has managed to talk you out of it?
- Would you like to release the hold that parts of your past have on your life today?
If your answer is yes then please join me in this, the first part of a series of articles covering an exciting journey of Self Discovery and Empowerment – Time for ‘The Emotional Baggage Diet’.
Emotional Baggage is essentially anything that has ever happened to you in your life that has generated an action or reaction that in some way, shape or form, is now holding you back in areas of your life. It can be from something simple.
- Maybe you fell over and hurt yourself when you were running as a child and someone laughed – Now you don’t like running or doing anything that you feel may leave you ‘looking’ foolish’.
- Maybe your parents used to argue and now you believe that all relationships are like that.
- Perhaps, like me someone told you that you can’t sing – so now you don’t. (I’m starting to now)
- Maybe you felt that someone let you down and now you struggle with trusting others.
There are so many examples that I could use, the list would and could go on and on – But it won’t:)
Everybody’s Emotional Baggage is personal, individual and just as valid as the next persons. No ones is any worse or better – It is unique.
I once listened to a story by the author Iylanza Vanzant (I am going to paraphrase now in the way that my mind remembers and stores this story).
Iylanza was talking about ‘Brillo Pads’ (Those scratchy metal cleaning pads that were filled with a pink soap and used for cleaning stubborn kitchen mess!). In the story she told how when she was growing up her mother used Brillo Pads and that was all she used. They were they greatest invention and the only thing to use to get the job done properly.
When Iylanza left home, guess what she used to clean her kitchen – Yes, you guessed it, she used Brillo Pads. Until one day when she went to the store and they did not have any. In that moment her thoughts told her to ‘panic’, she couldn’t use anything else, it didn’t feel right. The shop assistant told her the benefits of all of the other products, but still it did not feel right. In the end, knowing that she had to clean her kitchen she gave in and bought something different (hopefully it was a buy one get one free offer). Yet she felt guilty, her mother had always told her that Brillo Pads were what you should use.
Once she was home, she used the new cleaning pad. Soon her feelings of ‘panic and worry’, at not doing as her mother had done, changed. This product was easy to use, smelt fresh, and oh so much more……… She started to wonder why she had never tried anything different before and realised that she had just accepted that what her mother said was right and the only option.
Now Brillo pads have their place in our lives, but there may be times when something else may work better. Just like at the supermarket – there is always another option.
Sometimes we can have areas in our life where everything feels scratchy and uncomfortable, yet if we just change things round the surface can be clean and shiny.
Letting go of your Emotional Baggage can be as easy as ABC. But just like the alphabet it takes starting at the beginning – to get to the end. It takes each letter to make the whole. The Alphabet is still the Alphabet even if we put the letters in a different order.
What I am saying – is that sometimes if we just change our thoughts around, we can change our perspective and interpretation of anything. That may sound like a ‘sweeping’ statement, and one that is easier to write than to put into action. I promise you that change and transformation, growth and personal empowerment is possible by changing the thoughts we have about anything that is holding us back. I have lived it and now I would like to share it with you. It was not always easy – but it was definitely worth it:)
Albert Einstein is quoted as saying ~
‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again ~ and expecting different results’
