I used to have a terrible habit of trying to fit my entire wardrobe in my luggage when packing for a trip. At the end of the excursion, I always come to realize that carrying all the heavy luggage was unnecessary. Packing light is the most rewarding feeling because you have all the essentials and options you feel good about without the burden of the extra weight. As you experience obstacles in your lifetime you will come to understand that life is the longest journey you’ll ever take, and you’re not meant to carry everything with you along the way.
Emotional baggage is a term used to describe carrying trauma or negative experience with you through life whether it’s in your career, relationships. We all travel through life with this baggage that may have caused a significant emotional reaction within you. It’s important to realize these experiences continue to shape who you are, your thoughts, and the choices you make. Take a second and ask yourself if your emotional baggage is holding you back. Taking the time to identify and understand our baggage and making a conscious decision to let go, we free ourselves to experience life in a richer, deeper, more meaningful way.
A pro tip when packing is to plan out your outfits ahead of time. Having an idea of what you will wear throughout the trip will ultimately eliminate confusion when you arrive at your destination. Having too many options, listening to opinions of everyone, and not having tunnel vision will fog your view and limit clarity. Holding on to unimportant details instead of focusing on things that matter can distract us from having the best possible behavior and the opportunity to learn from mistakes as well as achievements.
A good way to start addressing your baggage is to have a reality check with yourself. What baggage is weighing you down? What are you willing to let go of? As you unpack, it’s also important to understand that none of our minimizing journeys look the same as the loads we all carry are different.
Sometimes baggage stays in your life because you never let yourself deal with it. The longer you wait to deal with your baggage the more cumbersome it becomes. Acceptance is the most important part of letting go and setting yourself free. Give yourself grace as you courageously confront the junk weighing you done. Come face to face with the trauma affecting your life and learn to release.
Learning to let go is easier said than done. It takes time, practice, patience, and mindfulness. Don’t feel bad about asking for help. Seeing a therapist can help you tackle some major life issues, and a licensed professional can be the key to helping you unload. As a first step of letting go, ask yourself what you learned from a negative situation and draw a lesson from it that you can implement in your daily life moving forward. What is the new commitment you are making and how do you care for yourself now, so you do better in the future?
Carrying heavy baggage will ultimately pigeonhole you from maximizing your full potential. Having a positive outlook as you go through this whole process can also be super helpful. Start to reevaluate all the things weighing you down and learn to pack light.