Ballerific Relationships: What Emotional Baggage Are You Carrying?

“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened…or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the f**k on.” ~Lesane Parish Crooks

Let me take a moment to ask you a question: How much emotional baggage are you carrying?  How much anger and resentment do you carry around every day?  How much of your life pass you by because you can’t let go of the past?  Are you really being your true self if you are weighed down by unrequited emotions and unresolved issues?  Let me answer that for you: No.  To be honest, no one, man or woman, wants to be in a relationship with someone who carries the burdens of the past.

Letting go is an art that is not easily mastered, but it can be done with persistence.  We often do not realize the damage that holding onto anger, sadness, bitterness, and old feelings does to our body, mind, health, and spirit.  Being angry and holding ill feelings towards someone is counterproductive.  The person you are angry with probably doesn’t know or care about your anger and is living life unbothered.  Meanwhile, you are being controlled by anger, and it affects your mood, attitude, and disposition.  What kind of quality of life does that bring?

Tina Turner said it best, “If you’re unhappy with anything, whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it.  Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.”

At some point, we all have emotional baggage.  We become obsessed with things in our lives that we cannot change or wish we had done differently.  For some, like myself, not being in control is upsetting.  However, the past cannot be changed because it is gone, so why stress over it?

The same goes for relationships, work stress, and life in general.  You must let go of things that keep you grounded in the past.  It is easier said than done, but it is possible.  Delete old emails and text messages, stop checking your ex’s Instagram and Facebook accounts, and deal with old feelings of hate and resentment towards that friend or family member who hurt you.  Let go, let God, and be your best self.  You cannot be who you are supposed to be if you are busy worrying about who you used to be.

What emotional baggage are you carrying?