Emotional baggage is unresolved, painful feelings and memories from the past that continue to negatively affect behaviors and attitudes in our current relationships.
You dated a liar. You were abused as a child. You married a cheater. Your business partner screwed you. Your partner had a bad temper. Your parents constantly criticized you. Your ex was emotionally unavailable.So how do you prevent the past from coming back to haunt you?
By taking ownership. Everyone has some sort of emotional baggage. No one is issue-free. The key is whether or not you are aware of yours. We can drag our baggage around on display for all to see or we can work on moving forward, taking only what we really want and need from the experience.
Therapy will teach you to process the emotions and feelings these events still evoke in you. The problem is not with the wounds themselves, but in how we deal or don’t deal with them.
Do we allow the damage to control our everyday lives? Do we allow these wounds to interfere with our current relationships? Are we judging ourselves based on the opinions or actions of someone that no longer exists in our lives?
In time, you learn to digest all the hidden lessons in the experience. So the next time your efforts don’t produce the exact result you were hoping for, you analyze what you learned, instead of making someone else pay an emotional price.
Carrie
