It’s better to travel light
Life is a journey, right? Most people would seem to agree with that, even if they have a different definition of the word. And, when you’re on a journey, no matter what the length, you pack certain things…
If you’re expecting to only be gone a matter of hours, maybe you don’t pack anything more than sunglasses and a bottle of water. Unless you’re Thurston & Lovey Howell, of course, but that’s another story.
If your trip is an over-nighter, you pack a little more; a change of underwear is probably (please!) on the list, along with a toothbrush and deodorant, etc.
For a week, the list just grows.
The difference between a trip of physical distance and our life journeys is that we pack our baggage ahead of time for the former, and start with nothing, but acquire more and more baggage as we go in the latter.
Life baggage, of course, is all of the ’stuff’ we incorporate into our perspectives – our vibrations – and carry around with us. It’s the beliefs we’ve come to accept about ourselves and our world(s), and the habits we’ve created in order to further those beliefs.
Problem is, we have a hard time letting go of them, even when we know we should.
The impetus for this blog post is the Daily Quote email I received yesterday from Jerry & Esther:
“Those old habits don’t have to be erased, they just become replaced by a new habit that is more in vibrational harmony with who you are and what you want.”
They’re talking about life baggage, and how you don’t need to do a bunch of work to get rid of it. You only need to focus on replacing it.
They often say that it doesn’t matter where you put your boat in the water, only that you do it. Similar idea.
But I want to expand a little on the journey idea. As I suggested above, we normally do our packing ahead of time when we are going to travel. But, what if we traveled cross-country in the same fashion as we travel thru life? What would the trip be like?…
Imagine that you live in New York City, and you’re heading to the West coast. You have plenty of money, no itinerary, no time constraints, no map. You also have no experience driving, and have never been outside of your own house. You jump in the car and off you go!
It’s wintertime, and the weather is cold and gray. Progress is slow because of traffic, road conditions and bad weather. At the end of the day, you’re tired, hungry, cold. You’ve been going in circles, traveling the same roads, and you’ve run out of gas. That night, you sleep in the car on the side of the road. In short order, you begin to “pack a bag” about traveling; it’s hard, uncomfortable work, with no visible reward.
But, in the morning, as you are putting your “bag” into the trunk of the car, you meet a stranger. He sees that you are traveling, and strikes up a conversation, during which he uncovers your lack of experience. He helps you to push the car to the gas station at the corner, and once again you are off!
After a 2nd long day of driving, you find yourself back at the same place where you ran out of gas the day before. Exhausted, you sleep there again.
In the morning, the stranger again appears. You learn that you can turn on the heat inside the car! At the end of that day, you’re far more comfortable than you had been previously, and you toss a little bit of ’stuff’ out of that bag in the trunk.
The next morning, you meet up with the same stranger, from whom you learn that you can find food at the restaurant up the street. Joy! You no longer need be hungry. You can now travel in comfort, with a full belly. Again you lighten your bag. Still, you end in the same spot for the night.
On the morning of day 5, the stranger teaches you that you can rent a room at the motel across the street, and sleep in comfort at night.
Day 6. He shows you how to find the highway out of town, and you go. You will never see that stranger again, but you are happy, because your bag is now empty.
Until you are again hungry, and you realize that the restaurant is far behind you.
Until you run out of gas, because the gas station is far behind you.
Until you are again sleeping in the car because the motel is far behind you.
And your bag is full again.
Eventually, someone – another stranger – comes along, and educates you more completely about getting gas for your car, food for your belly, and lodging for your rest.
You could empty your bag again, but now you are apprehensive about the future. Maybe you won’t find another gas station, or another restaurant or motel. So, you hang onto some of the ’stuff’.
With time, you continue to learn life lessons, and keep adding things to, and removing things from, the bag. Unfortunately, the tendency to hang onto our ’stuff’ is stronger than the one to toss it out, so you eventually run out of room for everything in that bag, and you pick up a new, larger one. And larger means heavier and harder to carry.
Now you’re carrying a can of gasoline, just in case. And food, water, clothes, a pillow and blanket, maps of the cities and states you’ve been thru. There’s no room in the trunk, and you’re beginning to fill the back seat.
Your car is loaded down with so much ’stuff’ that you have to stop more and more often for gas, and it just doesn’t perform very well any more.
In addition, you’ve become embarrassed about how it looks, so you don’t take as many side trips to see the tourist attractions. Instead, you just tend to stay on the highway, driving along without a clear destination.
Your free and easy, carefree trip across the country has turned miserable and embarrassing.
You could easily just dump everything you’ve accumulated along the road, but you don’t. What if you need it? The honest answer to that question is that you probably won’t, but you could find another one (whatever it is) if you had to.
Learn to develop new habits that serve you better, rather than hanging onto old ones that don’t serve you well any more.