Activities for Dealing With Baggage

Emotional baggage is one of the hardest psychological problems to describe. While everyone is affected by events from their past, some people are affected to the point that it prevents them from moving ahead to the future. If the past prevents you from moving forward with your plans, you may have psychological baggage. There are many ways of dealing with and overcoming this problem.

Writing

• Writing journals is one way of dealing with emotional baggage. You can use a journal as a place to disclose all of the feelings you are uncomfortable discussing in real life. In terms of specific activities to include in a journal, your options are pretty much limitless. You can use your journal to list things in your past you are hung up on. You can also use the journal to write activities that you want to do and that you will be able to do once you deal with your baggage.

Talking

• Talking to someone else about your baggage is not always a good social move. Some people may not appreciate hearing about your problems. However, if you have any close confidantes who are willing to discuss personal matters with you, it can be a good idea to talk with them. The most basic activity based on talking is to simply tell your confidantes about your problems.

  A more advanced activity is to describe your problems at length and brainstorm solutions with your interlocutor. A very advanced activity is joining a support group and discussing your problems with the group every week.

Counseling

• If your baggage is causing you serious problems in life, you may seek the help of a counselor or psychologist. Of course, seeing a counselor is not an "activity" in itself; in order to get the most out of a counseling session, you need to know what, exactly, you expect to get out of it, and tell this to your counselor. One activity you can do with a counselor is free association, in which you talk out loud while your counselor listens on and asks questions. Another activity you can do with a counselor is gradual exposure, in which you gradually get closer and closer to the people and things your baggage holds you back from. The role of the counselor is to provide you with a list of objectives to complete.

Analogies

• It can be useful to think of psychological problems in terms of analogies. This is why many people speak of themselves as "fighting" depression; the conflict analogy can motivate people to work through a difficult period. In terms of psychological baggage, Brett Blumenthal of Sheer Balance has developed an analogy that compares dealing with psychological baggage to handling baggage at an airport. To use this analogy as the basis of an activity, carry out a daily routine based on boarding an airplane: leave your baggage at claims when you go out, clearing your mind of thoughts related to baggage; get a "baggage handler" to help you out by seeking the help of a therapist and go through "baggage screening," regularly acknowledging your baggage so that you know what you're dealing with.