It’s natural that over time, most people accumulate extra baggage, whether it’s emotional or material.
Most people who have recurring patterns of unhealthy relationships, poor finances, low energy and other repeating challenges in their lives tend to have accumulated a great deal of emotional and material baggage. The root cause of this is quite universal.
People often continue carrying their accumulated baggage for two reasons:
- The baggage represents an armor they have built around themselves, as a form of self-protection. It’s easy to see why people feel the need to build a kind of energetic armor around themselves, to protect themselves from the world. We live in a society that teaches us how to focus on the things we don’t like about ourselves, through the false images and standards created by television, movies, magazines and other media outlets. On top of that perfectionist standard, many people grew up in households where their parents continuously criticized them for not fulfilling family expectations — not being smart enough, talented enough, thin enough or simply not having the interests or personality their parents wanted them to have. That pressure creates a very guarded and confused child, who then grows up to be a very guarded and resentful adult, if those problems are not dealt with.
- They have identified with the baggage for so long that they have forgotten who they are without it. After wearing our armor long enough, many of us start allowing it to define how we show up in the world. That, in turn, hinders us from noticing and fully receiving the blessings all around us. We can begin letting go of the armor, and unloading the baggage we’ve been carrying around for so many years. One of the most effective things we can do to release our emotional and material baggage is to simplify our lives and surrounding space. From my perspective, I’ve noticed that the environment we choose to surround ourselves with is a direct reflection of the environment we’ve created within ourselves.
Simplifying our physical surroundings at least once every six months makes room for more blessings to enter our lives. Any material items that we have not used in over a year — whether it’s clothes, books, paperwork or anything else that’s just collecting dust — it’s time to donate, sell or get rid of!
If there are a few objects that hold a special meaning for us, then of course we can find a place for them. However, the fewer objects we are attached to, the more room we create for new miracles to enter our lives.
Some people may find it easy to begin simplifying their space, while others may find that it’s one of the hardest things they’ve ever had to do.
If you are someone who finds simplifying your space to be a challenge, be gentle with yourself and take baby steps.
Ask yourself questions such as, “Who am I when I free myself of all this baggage?” or “How much room can I create for new blessings to enter my life, by decluttering my space?”
Really reflect on the answers that come to you. These questions will open up new neurons in the brain that will begin to bring in higher thoughts. These will help to empower you to dissolve the old patterns that have limited you and kept you from living your greatest life.
A healthy environment eventually leads to a healthy mind. Through the act of simplifying our living space, we create an opening for our mind to release its mindless chatter. We’re actually giving it the space it needs to know how to relax and be still and quiet enough to be in the present moment.
When the mind knows fully how to operate and live in the present moment, we move out of linear time and into nonlinear time, also known as “the flow.”
It’s when we are in the flow that we open ourselves up to the vast blessings the Universe has to offer.
To be in the flow means that we have chosen to keep life simple — and that’s when the magic and miracles can happen.
