Episode 107 - The Benefits of Baggage

A Therapist once said, "We are all carrying backpacks that we continually load up. We keep stuffing them full until one day, they can’t zip and the stuff starts spilling out all over the place."

One study found that emotional baggage can be a real barrier to making healthy lifestyle changes (like exercising more, eating healthier or quitting smoking). “Participants described being burdened by an emotional baggage with problems from childhood and/or with family, work and social life issues,” found the study. “Respondents said that they felt that emotional baggage was an important explanation for why they were stuck in old habits and that conversely, being stuck in old habits added load to their already emotional baggage and made it heavier.”

This baggage can also “interfere with professional ambition or goals, healthy relationships, personal contentment and the enjoyment of life,” says Ward. “Until you bring to your awareness why your life is not going the way you want; you can feel like a victim, someone who is being tossed around by life's circumstances.”

Sometimes the benefits of baggage can be that we can help others with their load when we can successfully unload ours.

This week on Connecting the Gap, we talk about baggage in life, what it can do to us and how we in essence can lay it down. Visit our website at www.connectingthegap.net for everything you need to know about our ministry, and please keep us in your prayers and subscribe and share!