By I just got back from sneaking off to Puerto Rico for a long weekend. My super kind sister picked me up from the airport and brought me home. The first thing she said when she picked up my suitcase was ‘Dear Lord, Mary! What do you have in here?!’. I am usually really good at packing for a trip, but apparently not this time. I didn’t have a fully planned out itinerary and that threw me off. To give you an idea…I came home with the following clean or unused items:
- black flats
- black dress
- windbreaker
- 2 bathing suits
- 2 pairs of socks
- 2 tank tops
- 1 T shirt
- 1 excercise top
- 2 pairs of shorts
…which is the catalyst for this post. Are you carrying around excess baggage? And is that preventing you from success?
“Baggage is the history we carry with us, such as negative messages we received from our parents, romantic partners or friends, or past bad habits,” says Angela Buttimer, MS, NCC, RYT, LPC, a licensed psychotherapist at Cancer Wellness. “It is anything that is not connected to our highest and greatest good.”
My excuse for this trip is I didn’t know where I was going/what I was going to be doing, so I needed to be prepared. But really isn’t that about me trying to control every aspect of my world? My life would be SO much easier, so much lighter if I would just let go of things. If I could trust in God.
Stop with excuses and acknowledge the truth! The reality is that I could have easily bought extra clothes if I truly needed to. The other reality is that I didn’t bring some stuff that I ended up needing because my suitcase was full (aloe and aspirin for a tinge of sunburn, dramamine for the ferry ride). I was fine and could have bought that in Puerto Rico, too, if I was desperate. but it shows my priorities were slightly off – I was worried about what to wear and what I looked like than being prepared for a probable health issue (I am always getting sunburned…but hey – I brought two bottles of sunscreen lotion!)
And in my life I’m entirely too receptive to the negative messages instead of hearing the positive.
So today, as I do laundry from the trip and put away the unused clothes, I will try to lose the excess baggage that prevents me from being the best me I can be.
More about Puerto Rico later
