Most people have some baggage from the past they are still dragging around with them, – whether they know it or not. It might be the hurt they are carrying from a relationship gone sour, the guilt of something they have done or the resentment that they feel for a past wrong against them. Have you ever stopped and asked yourself what are you carrying around that is no longer serving you?
Whenever you find yourself thinking about something bad that happened to you long in the past, stop and see what feelings are arising in that actual moment. You may be surprised to find that the anger or hurt you felt long ago can still feel as painful in that second as it did when it actually occurred. Your mind has no idea that you are not really experiencing the situation, it thinks it is real. This is why you can feel emotions so intensely even though the incident may have been over weeks or even years ago.
So why are you still carrying the past around with you everywhere? Surely it must be getting a bit too heavy and no longer serving you. If you find yourself faced with a ton of baggage from the past, or even just a little, here are a few ways to let go and release them.
1 Write it down and burn it
This is a ceremonial approach to dumping your baggage from the past. You don’t need to write an entire manuscript on the event, just get it out fast and light it up baby! If you’re not a fan of fire, shredding can be quite therapeutic as well.
2 Forgive
This is critical for you. Your forgiveness does nothing for anyone else. They don’t even need to know you have forgiven them. What it does do is release the load from you and let you move into the present. Hanging on to the past by not practising forgiveness is like picking up a burning coal to throw at someone else, you do more harm to yourself and probably nothing to your intended target.
3 Be present and focus on the now
Reality is the past is the past. Why are you pouring so much energy into something that is gone? It is as useful as watering a dead flower. By letting go of your baggage from the past you are freeing yourself to be present and create a future that is in line with what you truly desire.
4 Gratitude
Every area of your life can benefit from the practice of gratitude. What was it that you discovered about yourself by experiencing the situation that is still causing you hurt today? Everything brings with it a gift, but is just sometimes really hard to recognize it at the time. Really take a look at what has happened since in your life that you love, that probably wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t break up with that guy or get fired from your job. Be grateful for the good the past has brought you or may be in the process of bringing you right now.
You can use a combination of all of these methods to lose your baggage from the past, or you may find that one or two of them alone get great results for you. The important thing is that you actually do something and make a conscious effort to dump the past that is burdening your life today. You can’t change the past but you can create a better future if you are living in the present. If it happened even a second ago, letting go of your baggage from the past will free you for a happier future.
