Emotional Baggage

   Have you ever felt that there is a kind of tension in your body due to which you have a tight neck / tight shoulders / upset stomach / headaches / or anything like a heavy weight on your body? Due to these symptoms one feels as if there is a huge burden on the body; like a heavy backpack on you. This backpack is filled with nothing but the emotional baggage that one carries throughout the life. This baggage may have come into your life due to childhood problems / familial issues / workplace issues / issues of the society. Sometimes one is so stuck in the old habits that these old habits are responsible for adding a load to the existing emotional baggage that you have stuffed your backpack with.
   The emotional baggage one carries interferes with many of the phases of one's life - personal / professional / societal / ambitions / relations / satisfaction in life and many others. This happens because we are very much influenced by our past experiences - solved / unsolved. If the experiences are positive there is no issue but if they are negative and unresolved issues they have the ability to do a life long damage to us. This emotional baggage has the capacity to ruin our present and keep us imprisoned in the negative past. The reasons for an emotional baggage are - unexpressed feelings of anger, resentment towards someone, regret about something - missing an opportunity / committing a mistake / losing a relation - a parent / a friend / a pet. Some trauma that one has undergone in the past can also be an emotional baggage that weighs one down. A feeling of being cheated / being used / false allegations can also land you in a world of emotional baggage.
   Ways to get rid of the emotional baggage - 1. Begin from the outside to inside - find out what is not working the way you want it to work - be it a relation / a colleague / any area where you are concerned. The areas where you are very frustrated are the ones that carry a huge emotional baggage. Begin from outside and then clear the inside.
2. List out the things that you intend to change in your life. After listing it down begin with that area which is hurting you the most. Focus on it and try to make things feasible and light for your life based on the baggage it holds.
3. Take your time - nothing will change overnight. You have to give yourself enough time to heal because all these issues are highly sensitive and complex. Gift yourself the time to heal to make the baggage light.
4. Express what you feel - talk about it to someone / vent out whatever you feel about that particular pain of your life. If required forgive the person who hurt you in order to have your peace because once things are sorted out within / internally nothing can stop it from getting sorted externally.
5. Seek help and support - This is a crucial step because people today avoid seeking help from others. The help could be from anyone - a therapist / a psychologist / a close friend / anyone you trust.
   Once you have reduced the weight of your emotional baggage you have to maintain yourself in a way that you do not keep on piling things again in your backpack. Things like meditation / mentors / therapists and many other things that one finds suitable can be done to achieve emotional and mental clarity. One needs to stay fit - physically, mentally and above all emotionally in order to have a life free from emotional baggage.