Have you seen a Russian Nesting Doll? It has an outer shell in the shape of the doll: except that it can be twisted open in the centre like a bottle, and then, within, you’ll see another, which houses more within. There is a greater meaning attributed to these dolls – they aren’t just toys for children to play with. The underlying meaning of these toys is that we are all really layers within. We carry baggage, we carry memories of the past, and along with it, the emotional imprints of the bygone.

If one would agree that life is a journey, then it naturally follows that we are travellers. And we owe it to ourselves to travel light. Imagine making a trip on an airlines to your dream destination. Imagine carrying massive bags and bags of things that are unnecessary – but you simply can’t get rid of it – on the journey. Imagine how terrible that might be. You’re left lugging the bags wherever you go, or you wind up being worried about the safety of all your baggage. You owe yourself the freedom of travelling without all that heavy baggage that’s just, simply weighing you down.

To show you, in practical terms, let’s try an exercise. For every painful memory you have stored in your body, take one potato. Put all the potatoes inside a polythene bag and seal it tight. Write the date on which you start this on the polythene bag with a marker. For fifteen days from that date, carry the zip-lock bag everywhere you go: to work, to hang out with friends, to eat out, in public transport, to the gym, even to the toilet. Carry it on your person while awake and place it near your head, beside your pillow, at night. By the tenth day, it will start smelling. But continue, by all means. You will find people around you complaining. Fewer people will tolerate your presence around you. Fewer still will continue associating with you.

This is, in every sense of the term, a metaphorical representation of what your painful memories and baggage does to you. It creates a sense of inner heaviness that manifests in the form of symptoms: depression, anxiety, stress, relationship issues, lack of productivity at work, frugal concentration, and even physical ailments. That’s really only the tip of the iceberg. Imagine living your whole life this way.

Don’t end the year with baggage. Travel light. Be happy. Waltz into 2016 with happiness in your heart. Leave the ‘old you’ behind in 2015 and start the new year as ‘new you’. This is a gift you can give yourself, and believe you us, this is one gift with the longest lasting effects, ever.

An article from SeekSpark