We all carry emotional baggage. And because we are all controlled by our egos, by nature, we do our best to suppress it.
 
Common methods of suppressing our emotional baggage include avoidance through:
 
1.    Constant activity. How many people do you know that say “I must keep busy”, “ I cant stand not doing something”?
2.    Constant noise: TV, music, chatter. How many times have you heard “I cant handle silence”. Why? Because from the silence comes the voices of your emotional baggage and you can't stand that, it's too painful.
3.    Use of drugs, alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes.
4.    Excessive use of food and consuming the wrong type of food eg, heavy food. Chocolate suppress your emotions.
5.    Over sleeping
6.    Constant tiredness
7.    Strong emotional outbursts. These take the edge off the pool of emotional energy within but nothing changes.
8.    Not listening.
9.    Always being late.

Can you relate to any of those?

Some useful methods of dealing with our emotional baggage.

1.    Learn to listen. Your egos response is not to listen but to go off into the avoidance mentioned above. Learn to listen to your inner chatter.
2.    Learn to stop. Practise pausing between activities.
3.    Meditate daily.
4.    Exercise daily.
5.    Eat a healthy diet.
6.    Do a time line to create a map of your emotional history. Find out what your emotional baggage consists of: guilt, fear, rejection, sadness, hurt, anger. All of these result in lack of self worth.
7.    Create a daily journal and write openly with honesty. Examine your thought. Realise you can only find freedom from your internalised emotion by expressing it.
8.    Change your daily routine. Your ego hates change and by changing your patterns, you disrupt your entrenched ego and give your soul self a chance to flow into you; within your soul lies the freedom that you seek.
 
Happy travelling,
  
Printed with the permission of Peter Hoddle www.soulandego.com.au