Time to Dump the Baggage

By the time people reach adulthood, everyone has a story and some baggage to support it. We’ve all been hurt and we’ve figured out ways to protect ourselves from ever getting wounded again. These protective mechanisms keep us safe from harm, but also prevent us from really being ourselves.

The fact is, because of the wounds and all the defence, we’ve set up our whole identity around trying to keep ourselves from feeling worthless and unlovable. And if we’ve gotten over the hurt enough that we’re not all about protection, we become all about proving how worthy and lovable we are! Either way, there is a lot of energy involved in supporting the story we have about who we are and there’s associated baggage to boot.

When we reach a certain level of wholeness, we realize that we would be much happier just being ourselves. We’ve been growing and healing and now we feel ready to ditch all the crap we’ve been carrying around to support our sense of self worth and just be real. We can feel just how much energy it has taken to keep up this identity of ours and we’re ready to dump the energetic pattern. We also want to let go of all the things, activities and people that aren’t part of our new life as they directly affect our energetic pattern.

It becomes a big, yet meaningful and cathartic, sorting process. We take an inventory of everything in our life and analyze it to see if it’s staying or going. The purging process can be very emotional as we remember how much some of this meant to us at a particular point in our lives. Other things that had so much significance and value in the past may now be surprisingly unimportant to us and easy to dispose of. As we scrutinize, evaluate and sort through the various aspects of and elements in our life, we remember all the thoughts and feelings fondly (or not) and say goodbye to anything that no longer serves us.

Just as cleaning out a closet can create a large mess when you put everything out in the open, this process can temporarily throw you into an untidy state! When you tear everything apart and the room is upside down, anyone walking in might ask, “What the heck is going on here? You trashed the room!” While it looks like a mess to others and perhaps even to ourselves, and while we may both mourn and celebrate different aspects of the transformation, we know that it’s an important and beneficial evolution that must continue.

At an earlier stage in our healing process, it may have been too soon to get rid of these things. We felt the need to hold on because we were still attached to them, or we may have still needed them. We would have been inclined to clean up the mess and jam it all back into the closet because we were not yet ready to face or re-write our story. But now, in Stage 7, we know that the process must go on even as we hope it will be over quickly.

We end up with our three piles. The throw out, the give away and the keep pile. The keep pile includes all the things, activities, behaviours, people and principles we feel will continue to add value to our new life, whereas the other two piles will be purged. And now, it's done. With the resolution of our inner "closet" cleaning we find a new order within. The elimination of the elements of our life we no longer want or need changes the energy in the "closet", (i.e. the energy and perspectives within ourselves). The discharge has occurred and there is a profound feeling of relief and accomplishment.

When we move into our undefended and true nature, anything extra just distorts the beauty of our energy and we want to maintain the harmony. We feel lighter and freer without the weight of the baggage. We enjoy the peace and the accomplishment that accompanies the process.