Unpack Your Emotional Backpack
Everyone carries an emotional backpack that carries the weight of certain life experiences. The content consists of memories and experiences of varying magnitude that have not been let go and that remain reflected in the eyes.
If you don’t learn to get all those toxic and negative experiences out of your emotional backpack, the more time that goes by, you will have to carry more and more weight, which will have serious consequences for your mood and your relationships.
The weight of your emotional backpack
Today we tend to overload ourselves, not only in terms of work, but also in terms of emotions. Every experience we go through leaves a mark on us in one way or another. Importantly, this track pushes us toward growth rather than chaining us to the past with its emotional weight.
Feeling guilty, betrayed, abandoned, criticized, empty or frustrated can weigh you down and keep you from enjoying yourself. Experiences that leave scars and transform you are part of your story , so how can you shake off this weight when it comes at a creative moment in your life?
Look inside your emotional backpack and reflect on what’s in it, both what you put in it and what other people have dumped in it. Take your time. Even if you can’t see it, it’s with you every day. Recognize that most of your emotional responses have to do with the weight you are carrying. To rid yourself of it, you will have to learn to distinguish between what is useful and what is not. Allowing your backpack to get way too full and heavy will be a barrier to any kind of progress you want to make.
Unpack your emotional backpack to move forward
So make sure that your backpack is not overloaded, to the point that you can barely move with it and the weight burdens you for the rest of your life. Don’t lose the will to keep moving forward and don’t let your present fall into the hands of the past. And don’t be obsessed with forgetting, for forgetting is not a friend of intention.
As uncomfortable and complicated as it is, you will have to take some things out of your backpack so that these things can help you grow instead of being chained to them. The first step is recognizing what burdens you and accepting it.
You may even be overwhelmed by feelings of identity and attachment that, initially, keep you from taking certain things out of your emotional backpack. That dizziness you feel is fear masked by routine. You have become so used to these wounds that if they weren’t there, you would feel like a nobody , and a void would begin to develop inside you. But believe me, it’s just the fear of the uncertain, of the unknown, of letting go.
Learn to let go of everything that brings you down and drains you of energy. Accept your mistakes, identify and familiarize yourself with your emotions, let your dreams spread their wings, discover your strengths, appreciate yourself and, above all, learn that growth means accepting and learning from the things that happen rather than fighting against them. Remember that letting go is not always simply saying goodbye; it’s being thankful for what you’ve learned and moving forward.
To rid yourself of the weight of your emotional backpack, the weight that paralyzes you, is a huge step in giving new feelings and experiences permission to enter. Some will help you grow and others you will have to heal again, but that’s life. For your own good, let go of the weight.
Featured image courtesy of Lucy Campbell
