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How To Identify Your Emotional Baggage
We all have emotional baggage. It’s the collection of our past hurts and pain that we’ve carried around for years. And, while it’s not always easy to identify and deal with our emotional baggage, it’s important to do so if we want to live a happy and healthy life. In this post, we’ll discuss how to identify your emotional baggage and ways to start dealing with it.
Table of Contents
What is emotional baggage?
Emotional baggage, as the name implies, refers to the issues and problems we’ve carried around for years with us. It’s also often referred to as “unresolved issues” since most of our emotional baggage is unresolved. And that means we’re still letting these past events influence how we think and act in the present.
Letting go of emotional baggage is difficult for several reasons; it’s because we’re emotionally attached to these events, and this attachment has become a part of who we are today. Whether that’s good or bad depends on how you look at it. On one hand, you might be carrying around issues that prevent you from living life to the fullest; but on the other hand, your past experiences have shaped you into an understanding and caring person.
And beyond our attachments, there’s also society to contend with. After all, many of us were raised in families where emotions weren’t openly discussed or accepted (at least not in healthy ways). Therefore, when someone comes along and tells us that letting go of our past is necessary for our happiness, it can feel like they’re asking us to give up a part of who we are.
Emotional baggage is different from other types of baggage in several ways. For one thing, emotional baggage can control you rather than the other way around. As well, your emotional baggage might be much heavier or lighter than other people depending on your upbringing and current situation. And finally, each time you carry your emotional baggage around with you, you might make negative decisions about yourself and others.
How do you identify your emotional baggage?
Here are two questions to ask yourself:
What problems have I experienced over the years that I still think or talk about?
What issues do I tend to complain about more often than not?
As you might imagine, the first question may yield much longer lists of events in your life. However, it’s important to realize that seemingly small and even past events — like getting your driver’s license or graduating from high school — can have huge impacts on how you view yourself today. You can also use this list when writing down things you’re thankful for, which is a great way to practice gratitude.
The second question tends to have shorter answers since most people fall into one of two groups: they either complain about everything or nothing at all. If you fall into the former group, it’s likely because there are so many problems in the world that it’s hard not to complain. If you fall into the latter group, it’s probably because you’ve always been taught that making complaints is bad. But regardless of which camp you fall into, keeping your complaints to yourself can harm both your mental and physical well-being.
When dealing with emotional baggage, it’s important to identify what emotional baggage exists in your life so that you can start letting go of the things that are holding back your life. And if hiding from our past has prevented us from living life to its fullest, then it’s time we make room for happier experiences in our lives.
Recovering from Emotional Baggage:
It’s important to remember that everyone has emotional baggage. But what separates those who move through life with ease from those who remain stuck in the past is their willingness to confront that past and do something about it. So even if you can’t change much of your past, there are steps you can take to improve your life today. Learn How To Get Rid Of Your Emotional Baggage
1) Be honest with yourself:
While acknowledging your emotional baggage is a step forward, it won’t do much good unless you’re honest about where those issues came from and how they affect you today.
2) Let go of negative thoughts:
Even if you do understand how your emotional baggage has affected you, that doesn’t mean that you have to embrace it. After all, some people might believe that they’re unattractive or unworthy because of their upbringing while others might think that they’re not capable enough for various reasons.
Holding onto these sorts of beliefs will prevent you from moving towards a happier life. Writing down anything negative on a piece of paper and then throwing it out can be helpful when dealing with emotional baggage. It permits us to release negativity instead of holding onto it.
3) Make small changes:
Since emotional baggage doesn’t disappear overnight, you can’t expect to do one big activity that eliminates your emotional baggage. However, doing something every day that makes you feel better about yourself will gradually help you overcome the issues that are holding you back. Yoga is a great way to improve not only your body but also your mental well-being.
4) Identify things worth being grateful for:
It’s interesting how much our emotions are tied to gratitude since feeling unworthy can cause us to see an otherwise loving person as uncaring or dismissive whereas feeling worthy allows us to see the same person through rose-colored glasses.
Conclusion:
Emotional baggage isn’t something that you have to suffer. Simply by making these changes, you can become a happier person whose past no longer defines who they are today.
With this new perspective on life, your next step is to take it out for a spin and see what happens. If the first few days or weeks don’t seem any different, keep going anyway because those first few steps will eventually lead to a more fulfilled life, one free from the shackles of your past.
So if you’ve been feeling down lately and want to be happy again then it’s time that we change our lives around for the better. We all deserve it!
