What are you holding on to?
A friend of mine is tackling her email inbox this weekend. She is systematically going through that inbox and deleting emails she has hung onto for years. She is bravely posting about it on FaceBook, along with updates about the count she has reached.
I am so excited for her, and so humbled by her courage in sticking with the task. I am also doing what I can to cheer her on because I get a sense of how she could feel if she chooses to let those emails go. It's her choice and her life, and she is stepping bravely into the space of letting go, watching her mind tell her stories of how she "needs" this or that, or else!
It's only my opinion but I know how much we all drag around with ourselves in terms of physical things, possessions, old stories, emotions, hurts, resentments, emails, collections, old Xmas cards, our kids arts, their old outfits, pieces of furniture, ribbons, little bits of this and that and on and on I could go.
(This is coming from someone who has moved house twice in the past 18 months - so perhaps that is why this sits so close to the skin for me)
But here's the thing: I also work with people who are absolutely exhausted and overwhelmed with all the carrying they are doing - crushed under the sheer volumes of responsibility they feel, holding on to emotional hurts, baggage, stories from their past, beliefs that no longer serve them, coping skills that are long past their used-by date. I see them struggling for breath, joy and freedom under the weight of all of that extra carrying they are doing.
What starts as emotional hoarding of the moments gone past - specifically the ones that contain hurt, judgment, shame, guilt, embarrassment, conflict, pain, fear, miscommunication, unrequited love, unspoken words, harsh comments - often leads to physical hoarding in our lives. We retain physical objects or even emails to soften the harshness of life around us, as a protective layer.
What are we protecting our Selves from? All of the above list, and the anxiety that comes from letting go, being in the moment and trusting the process of life.
We are beings of light: both in the sense of illumination and in weightlessness.
We become bogged down with the stuff we carry from all the years we have lived. The load becomes a heavy, awkward burden that prevents us from moving lightly through our moments and days, curbs our creativity, shortens our time, limits our joy.
What are you hoarding?
What are you holding on to for fear of what your mind tells you will happen if you let go?
You are not the only one. You are safe.
Sarah xx