“If it’s out of your hands, it deserves freedom from your mind, too.”
Ivan Nuru
Thank you, Spidey, for the thought provoking quote, this week.
Going through all this house decluttering, in readiness for whenever we do move, has made me ponder upon the amount of emotional baggage we carry around with us, too.
Now, emotional baggage is different to memories.
Memories are those things that can be the light in a dark time – but, I know the opposite can happen with less favourable memories. (I try and lock them away as far away as I can, so they can’t impact upon my life too easily.
They can also be thought of as emotional baggage, along with those thoughts that can cloud our minds about issues we are unable to do anything about.
Sometimes, precious emotional energy, and mental strength is used up on things that are out of our hands, or not destined to be in our paths, at that time.
Let them go.
I’m not saying forget about everything that is hard, or issues around the world that you are not necessarily immediately affected by.
No.
Empathy is needed there, and if you are in the position to, then support by all means.
But, it’s that worry about things you can do nothing about.
Take a house move, for instance. I think, if you are familiar with moving, you’ll know what I mean. Once things are in the hands of the solicitors, aside from the chivvying along that we can do, there is nothing else, but to wait for all the dates to align… Sitting there, fretting, is not going to move things any quicker, is it?
Or, again, a little example from my own work life – I have to stop myself worrying about next academic year, and the children who will be joining us. I am already aware of the high level of Special Needs that are destined in our class, but I can do nothing about it. Worrying will not magic the need away. I have a current class with enough to keep my mind filled with stress! At least, I can be prepared for any eventuality… but for now, I’ve freed those thoughts from my mind.
I’m generally pretty good at identifying the things that it is no point in losing sleep over, but I live with people who have a hard time doing this, and stress eats away at them. No amount of my trying to convince them to try and relax actually gets them to let go. This is probably more frustrating for me!
So, tell me, are you able to let go of the things you hold no control over?
Have a peaceful Sunday Peeps.
But I Smile Anyway... 