Baggage vs. Luggage

My family and I enjoy watching that movie with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds called “The Proposal” whenever it’s on TV.  There’s a scene where Betty White, who plays the grandmother of Ryan Reynold’s character, says of Sandra Bullock’s character, “Boy, she comes with a lot of baggage.”

I was reminded of that scene yesterday, when I attended a class in which we talked about  how each of us have “baggage”; in layman’s terms it means the burdensome, negative thoughts about ourselves that we “carry” in our day to day lives often hindering us from a fulfilling life.  Sometimes it’s hard to determine how to get rid of our baggage for good.  We discussed the process would take defining, recognizing, unpacking and then re-packing.

First we defined that “baggage” is the different from “luggage” in that baggage was usually packed by someone else while luggage is packed by us.  Then we recognized what the baggage was by writing down a list of all the offenses, curses, abuses, diagnoses, negative “predictions”, bitter vows (those things said like, “you’ll never amount to anything”, or even, “I’ll never be like that person”), familial curses (“you’re just like so and so” or “all the people in our family have diabetes”), mind-sets etc. that we could remember.  Next, we “unpacked”, whereby we tore up and threw the list into a trash can and then said out loud that we didn’t want that in our luggage, and that the list was no longer who we were.  Lastly, we re-packed by declaring over ourselves the EXACT opposite of what we listed.  For example, if I listed, “I’m never going to be debt free”, I declared, “I am wise with my money and I will be prosperous”.  Just because it’s not true at the moment doesn’t mean it’s not the truth of who I am! 

On a daily basis, I know I will have to remind myself not to pick up that old baggage; it can be a hard habit to break.  I just have to remember, I really want to travel and I want to travel light!  And I especially want to remember to “leave room” in my luggage………for all the good stuff I’m going to pick up along the way!  There’s room for travel mates, why not get rid of your baggage, pack your luggage and come along? Hey, and bring some friends!

-Tessa L. Charles