{"id":113,"date":"2015-11-03T17:30:15","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T17:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=113"},"modified":"2017-02-19T04:33:28","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T04:33:28","slug":"packing-light-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2015\/11\/packing-light-in-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Packing Light in Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"summer-still-life-suitcase-in-field-grass-summer<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of us carry a lot of stuff with us. We aren\u2019t overloaded with actual things, but rather we are overloaded with emotional baggage.\u00a0 Carrying emotional baggage is hard.\u00a0 When we have too much of it, we are tense.\u00a0 We are easily frustrated by both real and imagined slights.\u00a0 Or perhaps we are sad, even if we are more blessed than most.<\/p>\n

We carry emotional baggage when we can\u2019t let go of the past. All of us do this to a greater or lesser extent.\u00a0 The problem is that the past is just that \u2013 the past.\u00a0 It\u2019s over and done with.\u00a0 We are powerless to change it.\u00a0 We do, however, have the power to prevent it from affecting our present.\u00a0 The way we do that is by leaving it behind.\u00a0 Leave your burdens from the past at the side of the road, keep walking, and don\u2019t look back.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there are certain types of baggage that are hard to leave behind. One issue that many of us face is our upbringing.\u00a0 Often people believe that they were robbed of the perfect childhood.\u00a0 They resent their parents for failing to raise them in a \u201cLeave It to Beaver\u201d type home.\u00a0 Realize that such an upbringing is rare.\u00a0 My husband is one of the few people I know who had traditional, solid parents.\u00a0 He was blessed with a Norman Rockwell-style childhood.\u00a0 But he is in the minority.\u00a0 A lot of us were raised by parents who made mistakes – sometimes egregious ones.<\/p>\n

If you carry baggage because of your parents\u2019 failures, the best advice I can give you is to leave their mistakes behind you. Realize that whatever they did or failed to do as parents is not a reflection on you.\u00a0 In fact, it has absolutely nothing to do with you.\u00a0 You are a beautiful creation of God.\u00a0 Move forward and focus on your ability (and responsibility) to create an amazing life for yourself today.<\/p>\n

People also carry the baggage of failed relationships, especially failed marriages. You would be very surprised by how many failed marriages there are.\u00a0 Divorce is not the only way that marriages end.\u00a0 It simply is the \u201clegal\u201d way that marriages end.\u00a0 There are many people out there who are legally married, but their marital relationship is over.\u00a0 They simply co-exist.<\/p>\n

Having a marriage fail is a painful experience. When my first marriage ended, it made me question my ability to make another person happy.\u00a0 It also made me question whether I was a valuable\u00a0person.\u00a0 But those aren\u2019t the right questions.\u00a0 When a relationship ends, you need to ask yourself, \u201cWhat was my role in this relationship\u2019s demise?\u00a0 What do I need to work on in myself?\u201d\u00a0 If you don\u2019t go through this exercise, you won\u2019t mature as a person.\u00a0 Sadly, the mistake many people make is to focus on the other person.\u00a0 They fret about how that person \u201cwronged\u201d them, and then they carry around that \u201cwrong\u201d like a big suitcase wherever they go.<\/p>\n

The best thing you can do when a marriage fails is to leave the baggage of hurt feelings behind. Instead, use the failure as an opportunity to focus on the areas where you need to grow.\u00a0 You may decide that you want to focus on being more patient or kind.\u00a0 Or perhaps you want to work on your priorities.\u00a0 Either way, don\u2019t make the mistake of creating emotional baggage by obsessing about what the other person did or didn\u2019t do.\u00a0 Your job is to work on improving yourself.<\/p>\n

Personal failure is another area where we create baggage. Losing a job, not achieving a goal, or making a financial mistake are ways that we can experience failure in life.\u00a0 Realize that those failures don\u2019t define you.\u00a0 Your defining moment is what you do after<\/em> you\u2019ve failed.\u00a0 Do you rally after a job loss and immediately pound the pavement for a new and better one?\u00a0 Do you shoot for your goal again, or perhaps replace that goal with an even bigger and better one?\u00a0 Do you crumble after a financial error, or do you save your pennies and work to rebuild your finances?<\/p>\n

We create baggage from personal failures when we choose not to rebound from them. Then those failures do become our defining moments.\u00a0 There is a great quote by Robert Kiyosaki: \u201c9 out of 10 businesses fail; so I came up with a foolproof plan \u2013 create ten businesses.\u201d\u00a0 I love that attitude.\u00a0 It says, \u201cI am not defined by the nine businesses that failed.\u00a0 I am defined by the tenth business that was successful.\u00a0 I am defined by my perseverance.\u201d\u00a0 Don\u2019t allow personal failures to become your emotional baggage.\u00a0 Leave that baggage at the curb and walk away.\u00a0 Forget the setbacks, and instead aggressively move toward something bigger and better.<\/p>\n

The key to life is to pack light. Don\u2019t carry emotional baggage from the past with you.\u00a0 The troubles from the past are valuable only to the extent that we use them to identify where we need to improve.\u00a0 Otherwise, our past troubles should be left behind where they belong.\u00a0 If you have trouble forgetting your past, pray and ask God to relieve you of the burden.\u00a0 Make that your daily prayer.\u00a0 Then one day you will realize that God has taken those bags from you, and you won\u2019t believe how light you feel.<\/p>\n

(Photo Courtesy of Pexels)<\/p>\n

Follow me on https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of us carry a lot of stuff with us. We aren\u2019t overloaded with actual things, but rather we are overloaded with emotional baggage.\u00a0 Carrying emotional baggage is hard.\u00a0 When we have too much of it, we are tense.\u00a0 We are easily frustrated by both real and imagined slights.\u00a0 Or perhaps we are sad, even…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-emotional-baggage"],"yoast_head":"\nPacking Light in Life - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2015\/11\/packing-light-in-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Packing Light in Life - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some of us carry a lot of stuff with us. We aren\u2019t overloaded with actual things, but rather we are overloaded with emotional baggage.\u00a0 Carrying emotional baggage is hard.\u00a0 When we have too much of it, we are tense.\u00a0 We are easily frustrated by both real and imagined slights.\u00a0 Or perhaps we are sad, even…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2015\/11\/packing-light-in-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-03T17:30:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-19T04:33:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/files\/2015\/11\/summer-still-life-suitcase-in-field-grass-summer-A.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meerabelle Dey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Packing Light in Life - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2015\/11\/packing-light-in-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Packing Light in Life - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","og_description":"Some of us carry a lot of stuff with us. 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