We are now 3 weeks into the new year!
That’s 3 weeks more than some and 3 weeks into some peoples resolutions (how are you doing with those goals so far?). The new year usually represents new possibilities and the end to some old baggage. However, sometimes that baggage isn’t so easily removed. So my question to you is what’s in your bag?
Some people brought into the new year with them worries about finances, relationship baggage, obstacles with children, burdens about work and their careers, hang-ups about family, stumbling blocks about education, worries about worries, and the list just keeps going.
Is that you? Are you overthinking areas in your life or hung up on previous life events? To most people stuck with baggage I say it doesn’t have to be a fence keeping you out of walking in your purpose or at least walking with purpose…it is your foundation for which you just continue to build upon. In other words, everything you have been through in your past doesn’t have to be what keeps you from moving into the future you want. What’s holding you back may just be the way you are viewing these experiences and challenges in your life. Instead of telling yourself excuses about why you can’t view these challenges as reasons as to why you can.
Examine the things you’re worried about or allowing you stay stagnant and ask yourself “Am I allowing this baggage to keep me from entering into my purpose?”
What Are You Afraid Of?
Start the process of letting go of some of this psychological baggage.
- Shed these constant worries by showing gratitude for having made it through the experience or for knowing the possibility to make it through is available to you. As long as you are breathing there are possibilities for you to get to the place you want to be, so don’t give up!
- Acknowledge the fact that you have these particular areas in which are weighing you down. Talk about them aloud either with a friend you trust or with your therapist… or even try writing them down. Journaling can be a good coping skill.
- Get creative! Find a way to express yourself. You don’t have to be Picasso, Misty Copeland, Bonnie Raitt or Prince but you can paint, dance and sing your way into some joy!
- Forgiveness is another way to shed emotionally draining baggage. “The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.” ― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience. Don’t do it for them, do it for you!
- Not happy with your health, work on it one fun way at a time. (Note: I didn’t say weight. Nothing sucks the fun out of getting healthy like counting calories and stalking your fitbit) Consider taking up dancing classes, walk and talk with girlfriends, chase kids at the park, attend a cooking class or produce market with your mate…just make it fun for you!
Your purse is probably cute and expensive but if you stuff it with too much its liable to break strap by strap. Start removing some of its contents and you will start to feel lighter!
Samantha