When I’m working with clients I use the term ‘emotional baggage’ to refer to the unresolved emotional pain that they are storing in their unconscious mind.
When triggered the person with the unresolved issues can react in extremely negative ways, and they also may find that the same life situations repeat over and over.
7 Ways to Start Letting Go…
1. Find support – if you know that you are carrying any negative emotions from experiences and events of the past, and they keep on repeating — get help, unbiased help. Yes, friends and family are great to talk to, however are they the right people for what you seek, is it time to use a qualified professional?
2. Acknowledge the feeling – the first step of ridding yourself of a negative emotions (or a fear) is to admit that you have it in the first place. Many ‘sweep’ their emotions away – undealt with it will continue to occur time and time again. You don’t need to accept, just acknowledge it’s present.
3. Explore how it got there. Yes this could be painful. You may not remember the exact experience detail by detail, however with help you will be able to look at your triggers and work out alternative behaviours to use.
4. Focus on what you would like to feel instead, takes practice, yet knowing what your feeling and why your feeling it plus having the skill to change is one worth learning.
5. Work on your thoughts. If you have emotional baggage, the chances are that when an external event occurs that triggers your reaction you ‘think’ in a certain way. Train yourself on how to stop the negative thoughts patterns (there are tools for this, takes massive conscious action)
6. Reassure avoid or maintain a distance with those who ‘press your triggers’ while you are working on you. If no physical space can be created, at least set and maintain your own mental boundaries.
7. Choose to let go – this is actually much easier than what many believe. You could start with repeating phrases such as ‘today, I use my emotions to my best intent’ or easier ‘I’m letting go’. Strange? Yes, if it’s not your language, practice and choose to adopt it as your own.
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