Put Away Your Umbrella
Sometimes we carry a lot simply out of habit, and it prevents us from true happiness.
We all have baggage, it's part of the human experience. The baggage we accumulate is just a byproduct part of the living, learning, and moving on. The messed up part, though, is that we continue to carry it with us. This is something that I've started to analyze in my own life. Specifically, examining what I'm holding onto and carrying around with me every day simply out of habit.
Introspection is hard work. I find that when I start to dig, the feelings resurrect and for a brief moment in time, those feelings are just as intense as they were the first day I felt them. But logic, and perspective, soon jump in, and the emotions are muted.
I came across the quote below that I really liked. It could be applied to many things in life, but the first thing that came to my mind was the unnecessary weight that we carry on our backs because we're not ready to let ourselves be free from old emotions.
"Once the rain is over, an umbrella becomes a burden to everyone."
It's a simple metaphor, but a significant one.
The rain speaks to the issues that we have in life. The big problem or event that we have lived through. When we're in the middle of the storm, it is disorienting, immediate, and sometimes scary. Our âfight or flightâ instincts are triggered. But it doesn't storm forever. The intensity diminishes to a trickle, and then eventually the sun emerges.
The umbrella represents the immediate emotions and mental state of the storm. As you live through something difficult, your survival mind takes over. You mentally protect yourself and you power through. You use that âumbrellaâ to prevent yourself from getting soaked and overwhelmed. But what good is it to carry that big, wet umbrella once the storm is over? It no longer serves a purpose, and if anything, it becomes inconvenient to hold onto on a sunny day.
I'm learning to close and put away my âumbrellasâ in life by focusing on the present moment, recognizing that there is no storm, and therefore, there is no need for an umbrella.