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You know when your holiday or trip is nearly at its end when you're waiting by the conveyor belt that is the "baggage reclaim". It's one of those parts of the journey that we can either look forward to, or dread. I guess it can really depend upon a couple of things a) what's actually in the luggage and/or b) your outlook on life. If you take a closer look at option a) it can, in fact, also be linked to option b)! Let me expand upon that.
In many ways it's one of those "is your glass half empty or half full" approaches. Is your luggage full of dirty laundry and stuff you have to lug home and unpack? Or is it full of wonderful memories of the trip you've just been on? Some might say it could be full of both! The question is - are you excited about getting the luggage home and unpacking it, or are you seeing it as a chore that you'll put off unless and until you really have to? I guess that can also depend upon what you've packed!
You see the thing about the metaphor of luggage is we all carry some around with us. Life is one big journey, and within our luggage are all the things we choose to take with us. We may not feel sometimes like we have a choice about what we carry and, in one way of looking at it, we may not. However we can choose howwe carry it. What I mean by that is - are we lugging around lots of dirty laundry, or are we carrying around some wonderful experiences that have helped us grow?
To take this further, are we trying to carry around too much?! One thing that always fascinates me is how much and how little different people take away with them. You watch next time you go to an airport or train station. Some people will be there with a small rucksack or bag, whilst others are there dragging a huge, bulging suitcase behind them. "Well it depends on how long the trip is or what it entails" you might say. And you may well be right about that. Naturally the longer the trip or the more varied the trip the more things we are likely to need along the way. But, do we really need everything we take with us?
Just like life, our luggage, and the things we carry around within it, can define who we are. Unlike our luggage, however, in life we can end up carrying all sorts of things that have served their purpose but "we hate to throw them away". I'm sure you wouldn't dream of taking dirty laundry and empty toothpaste tubes away with you. So why carry the emotions and traumas of old experiences with you? And yet, we still do - because they define who we are. But do they have to?! Do we really need to continue to define ourselves by what happened to us in our childhood? We all choose what we think and feel - no one can force us to think and feel anything we do not want. Not any one.
Chances are, you wouldn't continue putting clothes from your childhood into your luggage at the age of 30. You also wouldn't put clothes in that you dislike or that don't fit you any more. And yet, with negative emotions and feelings we do just that. The fear so many of us have about putting aside this "dirty laundry" is that we're not sure who we are without out. So it's worth asking the question "Who would I like to be?" and then pack accordingly! Of course, that may well mean we need to unpack our luggage, purchase some "different items" and then repack. But that can be exciting, and fun! Like packing to go on holiday.
It's worth having a think about the last time you reviewed the "luggage" you are carrying around with you. Can you lighten the load a bit? Are you carrying around things that have served their purpose and now you can let them go? Are there things that need a bit of a cleanse that you can continue using? Life will always provide us with what we need, when we need it. So travelling as light as we can allows us to pick up and drop off things along the way. The journey of life never ends. And neither does the supply of what we need to travel it. Check your luggage today.....
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