Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go
-Herman Hesse
One big challenge in life is learning to let go of emotional baggage. Sometimes we hold on to negative experiences from the past much longer than we need to. If you are not mindful of this you will stop yourself from moving positively forward.
The issue with carrying emotional baggage is that you can end up reliving and rehashing all your nightmares and trapping yourself in a paralysing loop of negativity.
Making a conscious decision to let go and free yourself is key. Without freedom from the past there really is no freedom to embrace the future. Here are some to tips to help you to let go of the negatives of the past:
1. Challenge yourself – Ask yourself a very fundamental question. How am I benefiting from reliving my negative past? Once you clearly understand that it doesn’t serve you in any way it will help you to detach yourself from it. Learn the lesson and move on
2. SUMO – Shut Up and Move On. This is a great bit of advice if you are anything like me and have the propensity to over-analyse. Let’s face it: kicking the past around is not only exhausting; it can also be really boring!
3. Write yourself a letter – Purge yourself of a negative experience by writing it down and then destroy it and make a conscious decision to let the experience in your mind go at the same time
4. Create new memories – If you focus your mind on the present and start to create dreams for the future, this will help to take your mind off the past
5. Don’t ‘should’ on yourself – Under no circumstances “should on yourself” If you hear yourself saying “should have”, “would have” or “could have” all you will do is make yourself feel disappointed and regretful
No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again
– Buddha