Loving My Life More Freely by Letting Go of the Past

The random collection of old luggage in my closet reminded me of my ex.  Every time I pulled it out of storage I felt a pang of remembrance of some place I had travelled with him.  Some of the memories were good, some not so good.

For the past 4 years I have been in the process of reinventing myself.  I’ve come a long way in that time, and I’m not done yet.  One of the very big steps I took was deciding to take an Italian Vacation with a  friend in 2016.  We planned it for months!  We had both recently come through the grieving stages of divorce after long marriages.  We have moved on to the “looking to our future” stages, and are both very happily single.

So when I pulled out my old luggage in preparation of packing for our adventure, I felt a little deflated.  There were my old bags, with the essence of all of my memories still packed in them. I was dreading the thought of packing for my bright, shiny new adventure into those dreary old bags.

After considering my options, I asked myself how I truly felt about those old bags and what they represent.  The answer was a resounding desire to never use them again!  So, I checked in with the executive branch of my wisdom centers to see what it thought of that.  My head agreed that there were too many memories and associated bad feelings with the old bags and advised that I could afford the cost of new ones.  Well, then, what’s a girl to do?

Right. Back to this idea of reinventing, or more precisely, rediscovering myself.  The random collection of old baggage represented my past.  I had moved on from my past.  I was learning to deeply Love My Life.  A significant part of saying goodbye to my past was accomplished by letting go of the physical reminders that were anchored there.  So, in one empowered step, I both literally and metaphorically cast off the old baggage I had been holding onto.  I put the luggage into my car, drove to the local Goodwill, and donated them, casting them forever into my past.

My new luggage remains ready to be packed for many adventurous journeys!  I plan to pack them full of marvelous memories and a few trinkets along the way.

Dream it!

Believe it!

Achieve it!

Sarah Whalen, Life Coach