As we listen to the unfolding of extraditing Edward Snowden to the USA from any country he’s found refuge in, we each make judgments: whistle blower, hero or traitor. Since he has at least 3 days in the transit area, a safe zone of a Russian airport, the real life situation continues to confound leaders let alone the public.
For me all the talk around lengthy airport stays remind me of emotional baggage that have many of us in a similar limbo. It would be with a feeling of relief if we could lose some of that emotional baggage as often our travel baggage is lost.
Doubt, powerlessness or whatever the unpleasantness is, it would all just – get lost – and turn into a vital, positive energy.
On a more humorous side, the whole situation with Snowden reminds me a bit of the 2004 movie with Tom Hanks, Terminal, where the character Hank plays cannot enter the USA and cannot return to his country. Stuck in his own safe zone but still needing some help.
How can we let go of some of that emotional baggage? We certainly don’t stuff items in our travel baggage that might not pass the airport security check-in. What about looking out for our own emotional health safety? Lately, partly because of my regular meditation routine, if I’m feeling that negative emotion I “pack it stuffed” to then let it go.
It frees you up when you travel lighter, that is, with less emotional baggage. A few months ago my husband and I flew to visit his mom in a long term care facility. We would be away for just 2 nights and 3 days. Unbelievably we were able to lighten up our packing to have just one under the airline seat bag! Why not do the same tough stuff and find a way that works for you to unpack any of your own negative emotions?
Just like Snowden and the Hanks character Viktor wanted to get out of that limbo zone, how long do we each want to stay in the baggage zone of our emotions? Is really after all, safe or does it just keep us playing safe?
The truth is that we all have that negative emotion from the past to some degree in some way. Maybe we were hurt by someone or maybe we were the one to hurt someone else. Whatever baggage you might have if you hold on to it, it will keep you stuck. And when you let it go, you’ll find your energy returning to help you move forward in whatever way you want to.
What is your emotional baggage doing for you?
Is it helping you or hurting you?
What do you do to let it go? How is that working for you?
By the way, the movie Terminal, is based on a real life story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri who was an Iranian refugee who lived for 17 years in a lounge at Charles de Gaulle Airport. Now that is just way to long to stay stuck.
Where to start with the emotional baggage I tote around? Just when I thought I’d conquered some of it, I found it thrust upon me again when I quit my stressful job without much of a concrete plan other than my husband’s encouragement to just start writing. I totally get what you say about literally lightening our physical loads. I’ve even written about it in the past. Even as I write this, the movers are here packing up my house which doesn’t have a lot of clutter. I’m hopeful that the move will lessen some of that emotional baggage because I’m headed back to places that are in my bones.
It’s really interesting how we think we have learned a lesson or two and it can come right back at us in maybe a little different way. Yes; physical clutter is closely tied to emotional baggage and lack of energy. I often liken it to cholesterol in our bodies: Cholesterol clogs arteries. Clutter can both physically and energetically clog our homes. Too high cholesterol can raise blood pressure. Too much clutter and emotional baggage can cause problems for us.
Thanks Jeri and … happy moving!
Emotional baggage holding you back? I would not even know where to start talking about it. Like Jeri just as soon as you think you have it all dealt with an put away it comes back and smacks you square in the face again… big sigh… Still working on it.
Can’t help saying that I am fairly certain Snowden has a lot of emotional balance.
Was what he did his claim to fame? If so, he miscalculated enormously. Beijing told Hong Kong to get rid of him and Putin yesterday gave the condition that he has to stop “harming our American partners” in order to get asylum in Russia.
Am not happy about governments spying on not only their own citizens, but citizens of the whole world. But when your work with national security to do what Snowden did is treason. And to make matters worse he fled to Hong Kong that has an extradition treaty with the US and annonced to the world what he had done. What does he think goes on in China? Or Russia for that matter?
And what country will give him asylum? Most likely one that is spying on its citizens. The more I hear of this the more convinced I get that this is a person who, for some reason, desparately wanted to become world famous. And since he didn’t have any other option he opted for treason. Talk about emotional baggage…
Catarina wow. I didn’t mean to get going in that direction with it!
I can’t speak for Snowden’s emotional baggage, only for his stay in the safe zone for now.
Aw emotional baggage. Many times we pack and carry it out around out of habit, without thought or consideration as to the effect it has on us. Unwinding it is kind-of like cleaning out a garage. We avoid it, shut the door to it but it’s still there. Once we commit to clearing it out, it is such a relief and fresh air rushes in. 🙂
Love that metaphor of likening it to cleaning out a garage Susan. But you’ve never seen our garage – my husband is anal retentive about it being clean. But I DO get it having been in enough garages as a car enthusiast! teehee.
Great post! I’m definitely carrying some heavy emotional baggage that keeps me professionally from venturing out of my comfort zone.
All of us humans have some kind of baggage. I can’t imagine someone having none. But recognizing WHAT it is becomes the first step to unpacking it. So to speak. Thanks Dennis.
Pat — Like others, I carry emotional baggage. I think we all do. It is pointless to say to someone “You shouldn’t feel that way.” You can’t legislate someone’s feelings. It’s what you do with those feelings. Negative thoughts will always pop into your head. You can’t prevent them. When I’m tempted to say, “Why me?” I stop and count my blessings. I’m not a polly-anna but as I age I tend to look on the good things that have happened and what a good life I have now, with family and friends and a full life. I could be sad, having lost my beloved husband. But he’s still a presence in my life and he would encourage me to live life to the fullest. That’s what we always did. I live for today. As a former neighbor used to say, “Just remember, tomorrow ain’t promised to you.”
Jeannette I really think that if someone said, “I’m baggage free,” I’d be suspect. I’m reminded of Paula Deen (spelling?) and her recent media apology saying that if you have never said something bad about someone or something else, then throw a stone at her. It’s the same kind of thing.
Your husband sounds like he was a wise man and a wiser soul. Thanks.
I have gotten to the age I have let the emotional baggage go. When something happens and I know it is going to take be down, I actually get a hold of my emotions and try to think it out. I just had something happen to me this past weekend. If it had happened even 2 years ago I would have reacted differently. I found a website called Copyscape where you can type in your website and see if anyone is plagiarizing your site. I was checking my main site and found two sites that had copied my site verbatim. One was from China and the other from Malaysia. People were telling me to hire lawyers and I said let’s be realistic, you are not going to stop them from doing it. I took a deep breath and thought what can I do to fix this problem. I know that Google looks at duplicate sites as cloaking and will either index one or the other or none. I had noticed that the main site had dropped in rankings a year ago and I didn’t know why. Both of these sites has copied and when I mean copied, they used my rotating banners, text, images and they were even stupid enough to leave up my Garrett Specialties logo. Based on the banners that they left up, it was the time I was losing rankings. So after counting to 10, i got busy. I redid all the text on my homepage and category pages, and my web designer corrected anything with anchor text that these companies had duplicated. Yes I am taking a risk changing content as who knows what Google looks for when indexing, but today I am OK. Carrying emotional baggage is toxic. I am not perfect but if I can fix it I do and if I can’t I let it go. Good post
You shared quite a situation here, with lots of lessons, including my takeaways of:
-if you blog, use CopyScape
-lighten up on problems to move you to problem solving
I think if you weigh out your chosen solution to anything of a downside with what Google looks for, you are still ahead. Lighter and freer to attract more abundance to you. Thanks Arleen!