Whether we like to admit it or not we all are living today with some emotional baggage. While some may have more deeply rooted baggage that affects their day to day living we can all recognize within us those times in our lives which continue to affect the way we think, our view of our self worth and the way we interact with others around us. It might have been a time when someone told you that you weren't smart enough, maybe someone commented about your looks or you made some bad choices. Whatever it is that baggage may well be holding you back from allowing you to become the person you are meant to be.

So what kind of emotional baggage are you still holding on in your life? Is it a small bag, a large suitcase or something in between. Whatever it's size it is affecting your present life like a dark shadow that follows you around.

If you are serious about letting go of your baggage and beginning your new life without all the dead weight than read on.

Learn from the past and then let it go. If you ask most people who are successful, happy and fulfilled in their lives they would probably tell you that they wouldn't change a thing about their past. The fact is that you are the person today because of your choices and experiences of your past. If you aren't happy with where you are right now with your life chances are you haven't taken the time to learn from your mistakes and experiences of the past. Why not pick up a journal and pen and start recalling all the times in your life that have stood out. It is our defining moments that we learn the most about ourselves. In reality there is no good experience or bad experience, there are all just lessons in life to help guide us and grow us as people.

So take a moment to write down every defining moment in your life, it might have been a time that your teacher praised you for your work that you put a lot of effort on, it might have the time your parents divorced, a rejection you felt from a friend. Once you have written down all those moments ask yourself what have you learnt from that experience and how has it shaped the person you are today. It is only when we learn from our past that we can then let that go from our lives. If we spend our whole waking lives being dictated by our past we don't have an opportunity to look forward to shape our future. Imagine spending most of your time driving and staring at the rear view mirror, your bound to either crash or end up in a destination other than where you had intended. So look forward in your life and appreciate the person you are and the person you are becoming.

It's no fun carrying around extra baggage. The reason we take baggage with us on holidays is so that we can bring along things that we will find useful or necessary for our enjoyment while we are away from home. It usually are things like clothes, toiletries and personal items. Once we reach our holiday destination though we are all to happy to check it into our hotel rooms so that we can be free to sight see without being inhibited by large baggage tugging around behind us. Isn't funny then that many of us are often only all to happy to carry around their emotional baggage every waking moment of their lives like it's something valuable that they don't want to check it in and leave behind. Baggage over time can get quite exhausting and mentally draining when it is following you around every where it goes. Wouldn't it be amazing if you could just decide to let it go and be free.

A great exercise to do this is to create a new future for yourself. It's not easy to forgot about the past but what you can do is create a new past starting today. Decide today that you are going to live your life free from your baggage, that today you will start a new you and everything that has been holding you back you will not think or dwell on for this next 24hrs. At the end of the day you now have a new history that's 24 hrs old. That is the new you. You then start tomorrow doing the same thing. Don't worry about trying to change the future you someday, just focus on doing it one day at a time. Before long you will have created a new history of the person you are and the baggage will no longer have such a negative bearing on your life.

T Young
www.personalgrowthunlimited.com