Emotional Baggage Tote

 Everyone has it; the trick is to carry it elegantly. 

We are all damaged in diverse, stubborn and interesting ways: someone humiliated us a long time ago; we witnessed bitter rows between our parents; we had anxieties about self-worth fuelled by comparison with a high-achieving sibling; an early business venture ended in disaster; we have a tendency to obsessive independence that makes it hard to live with anyone else; we have a rebellious streak which seemed cute at sixteen but now gets in the way of working amicably with others…

It’s not possible to go through life without burdens of this kind. But it makes an enormous difference whether we know how to acknowledge them and whether we understand them. When we fail at this, we get defensive and bitter. We claim we’re not lacking self-confidence, it’s just that other people are full of themselves. We insist we’re not envious; it’s that other people are greedy. We say we’re not rebellious, but the world is too conformist. And we’re definitely not hard to live with; it’s just our partners who have turned out to be pathetic.

This is emotional baggage badly carried.

We must try to learn ways to be more deft about the damage we are burdened with: how to fathom it, how to set it in context and how to warn others of its existence in good time (when we are still calm). This bag celebrates one of the most glamorous projects any of us can undertake: learning how to carry our emotional baggage well.

It is vital to develop self-control skills, as well as an attitude of empathy towards other people’s needs. When we behave impulsively, our actions may have disastrous consequences on our lives and on the lives of those surrounding us.

Resilience is also equally important, so that we won’t be overcome by depression.  A closer relation to Nature helps to pacify the mind, so often a stage for countless conflict that deprive us of our best energy.

To breath calmly in natural surroundings, to feel their harmony and poetry, all contribute to open new horizons and free the mind from obsessive states, in which the memories of the past, together with their load of resentment and bitterness, become a permanent cause of emotional imbalance.