Carrying around extra baggage with you can really rob you of precious energy. I don’t think you can get rid of all of it but at least you can upgrade from a giant suitcase to a mini backpack. So much of this baggage has come from past experiences that hurt us or left their mark.
These marks are known in yoga context as Samskaras. Think of a Samskara like a deep groove carved out in your mind. We can also think of it like a major highway, the 401. When we have an experience the mind finds the path of least resistance or the 401! Why not? It’s fast, convenient, you may have been 50 times or more, it’s familiar.
Same trip, same ride (your body) but add 5 extra heavy suitcases! This is your baggage. The mind is a storehouse and what it’s storing is every single life experience you’ve ever had. It can also weight you down, make you feel depressed, effect how you eat, sleep, love, and interact with yourselves, other people, and the world.
So if you were to make a pit stop on the side of the highway and you had the chance to leave those 5 extra heavy bags at the side of the road would you? It’s not that simple, for many of us we believe that our life experiences are very important, they make us who we are. I agree, they do, but do you really need the bags to show for it?
Maybe our fears of who we could be override our ability to let go of the past or some parts at least. Whe
n I suffered from depression it was such a huge part of my life. I would honestly meet new people and within the first 5 minutes they would know that I suffered from depression. How could they not? I was standing there with a 10 piece matching luggage set!
My first yoga teachers introduced me to many things but one of them was meditation. I really wasn’t interested to be honest. I even went so far as to kindly request that they took it out for me, luckily they downright refused and I am forever grateful they did!
Meditation is the key to putting our minds through the baggage check, filtering out what is no longer serving us so we can be more amazing than we already are. When you meditate you get into these deep mental grooves and more so you pave over them so when you mind is triggered by an experience you don’t automatically go to these samskaras, you don’t immediately make decisions from them, it’s extremely liberating.
Have you ever noticed when something shitty happens to you, you get in a fight with your partner, a co-worker, a friend you spend a good chunk of that day playing it over and over in your head? That only makes the samakara deeper! Meditation is an interruption of what can become obsessive thinking. It’s like the entire 401 is blocked in both directions and now you must find a new route through your mental landscape.
You don’t need anything fancy to meditate, you don’t need a special cushion, or to sit in lotus pose you can just simply take a few minutes out of everyday, the key is everyday, to put your mind through the baggage check. You will notice each thought rise and fall without any judgement of yourself. This is a great opportunity for an ego check too! Over time your mind becomes more tranquil and you can downsize from your 10 piece matching luggage set to maybe 3 or better yet 1!!!
You are more than the sum of your experiences, because you are infinite source energy!
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