How do we know when it’s time to let go of our baggage?
When do we realize that holding onto negative energy exhausts our spirit?
There comes a time in our lives where we just need to let shit go. We need to release those feelings of anger, frustration, betrayal, or heartache. The longer we hold onto these emotions, the more time it’ll take to bring balance back into our lives.
These past few months, I have been reflecting on my life and exploring my past to see what I am still carrying with me. From feeling alienated, like during my high school days, to yearning for deep connections in making new friends, to always being reminded of my skin color, it all continues to resurface. But how do I address these issues so they do not impact me negatively? How do we confront our own personal setbacks to let them empower us instead of break us down?
It begins with going back to those times -feelings, mindset, and all- to help understand where we were mentally. We have to revert back to our 5 year-old, 15 year-old, or 20 year-old selves. When we are in that space and able to feel the emotions rushing back, that’s when we are able to face them again. That’s when we see why our past selves were impacted so strongly. Once we realize that we’ve been in this space before and see what has triggered these emotions, then we can begin to overcome these feelings. Then can we face our emotions with a different perspective and figure out how to no longer let them cripple us.
As we process through our past experiences, we are able to feel a release. We have gotten so used to holding onto things, people, and ideas. Not being able to let these things go weighs heavily on us. We become stressed, anxious, angry, and upset without understanding where it comes from. Our mind and body are no longer in sync and we lose ourselves amidst the chaos.
When we break down we can break through. We let all of our emotions out and are finally able to rebuild the broken parts of us. Whether we need to cry, scream, put on our “boy, bye” playlist, or dance our frustrations out, we are expressing ourselves freely. There is nothing that can replace this kind of vulnerability and rawness. When we are honest and true to ourselves, then can we share our authentic selves with the world.
No matter how put together we may seem, we all have baggage. We all have parts of our past that continue to weigh us down. But only because we continue to allow them to. It takes time and conscious effort to confront the parts of ourselves that we hide, that we ignore, and that we tell ourselves don’t exist. By closing these parts off, we never grow to our full potential. We get so focused on holding grudges against people and hating the world.
But what if we let all of that go?
How free would our spirit be?
How liberated would our little girl or boy inside of us feel?
When we peel back the layers of who we are as human beings, we all just want to be loved, accepted, and happy. As children, we aren’t exposed to the realities of the world. We are naive to the ideas of hate and alienation. As much as we’d like to go back to those times, we can’t. We can only move forward, heal the wounds of our past, and bring love and compassion to those around us. That’s what living is all about. When we leave this earth, we won’t be thinking about the things we bought, but instead the memories we made and how we empowered those we love.
Give yourself the space to heal. Your spirit will thank you.