Ditching Your Emotional Baggage: Time for a Baggage Upgrade

Today is national Civic Aviation Day honoring the importance of non-military aviation. Why not celebrate with an airline-inspired musing focused on baggage fees? And just like your travelling baggage emotional baggage has a high high cost!   

We tend to think of the phrase “emotional baggage” in a negative light. Emotional baggage being an accumulation of our not-so-positive life experiences that we carry with us. A burden. We’ve all experienced our own trauma, failures, setbacks and other negative events. These moments that have shaped us and underlie our behaviors and thoughts.

Check You Bag Dimensions: We all have baggage and some of us can’t “pack lightly” for our daily flight through life. We carry around enough baggage that the flight attendant will give you a look. You know, THAT look that says there’s no way that bag will fit in the overhead compartment.  Baggage so big we can’t hide it.

And some of us have a small bag we thought would qualify as a “personal item” and sometimes the overhead bin has room for our little bag though sometimes the bin is packed so tightly with everyone else’s baggage that one more bag would damage something delicate – or worse – one more forced item will make the bin explode after a good jostling through some turbulence.

Taking Action for a Happier Life

You can ignore your baggage for a while and check-it below decks. And while checking your bag puts it out of sight and out of mind, the baggage is still there and will very soon come back to you at the baggage claim. It’s a bag you might not even want to publicly claim but you can’t just leave it there.

Maybe the bag is a little out of fashion, has a little tear that needs fixing and an awkward handle jutting out that no longer retracts and now gets in your way.  And sometimes those negative emotions, self-doubt and self-limiting beliefs you think are neatly tucked away in your hard-sided case bust a zipper and your carefully hidden “tightie whities” and Spiderman Underoos spill out onto the sidewalk of daily life for all to see. Gasp!

Our emotional baggage doesn’t need to be a lifetime commitment to showing up with the same battered bag. Our baggage shapes our brains, our behaviors and how we show up in the world. And true freedom and joy comes from seeing your beat-up baggage in the carousel – seeing your negative baggage in the full-light of day – owning it. Then deciding it’s time to invest in a new set of baggage that fits the life you want: shiny, attractive and durable. 

New Baggage: Baggage built on positive emotions and your inner strengths for the non-stop flight we call life – and worthy of first class. In order to experience life more fully, to show up differently and to offer up the highest and best of you to the world you need the right gear. And the upgrade to always being in first class comes with a lot of perks! You’ve earned the upgrade – you’ve put in the miles so cash them in for and start flying in a different class.     

Anthony Poponi is a Corporate Trainer, Coach, Motivational Speaker and author of “Focus on the 40” specializing in improving team dynamics, communication and productivity for teams and individuals. His work is based on the research in the fields neuroplasticity, positive psychology, and leadership to focus on a flourishing life.