How To Empty Your Emotional Backpack When It Gets Too Heavy

By Frosty Wooldridge

Each winter I load my backpack up for mountaineering skiing to 10^th Mountain Huts in the Rocky Mountains.  I load survival gear to make sure I don’t die while I cross-country up to the top of 13,000-foot mountains at 40 below zero.   In the summers, I load my backpack up for long treks along the Colorado Trail or other mountain venues. 

(Free yourself to climb any mountain and celebrate when you reach the top)  Photography by Frosty Wooldridge

Whether you pack into the Appalachian Trail or the John Muir Trail of the High Sierras, the key: you must be prepared.  You take the experiences of the past, good and bad, toward a successful journey into the wilderness.

Let’s face it, backpacking takes a kind of “true grit” to move yourself and 55 pounds of food and gear up a trail or to the summit of a mountain.  It’s not easy.  You must train. You must be in the moment. You must square with Mother Nature.  If you don’t, you get your butt kicked.

Same with life.  You may notice that many people experience a bad situation in their life journey.  Or many!  Some take a bad experience and build on it.  Others take unfortunate moments or people, and dwell on them.  They carry those negative energy “moments” inside their minds. 

In many ways, past experiences become great teachers, but they also can become terrible masters.

Let’s say somebody at work or even a family member caused you severe pain or anger or frustration.  How about a person at school who really upset you, and continues to say nasty things to you?  How about that boss who must be the cruelest creep on the planet?  I remember my Army drill sergeant’s sadistic treatment of me, so much, so that I wanted knock his block off.  Instead, he made me drop for another 100 pushups.

Some of those nasty experiences arrive via people, relatives, bosses, strangers and friends.

If you carry the anger, hurt or frustration for a long time, it’s the same as carrying a heavy backpack on a treadmill. You don’t go anywhere.  You keep carrying it over the years, but it gets heavier because, in many ways, life equates to “spiritual boot camp” on this planet.   Whether you like it or not, “life” tosses you different lesson from different people along your path.  You may choose to learn the drills, dodge the holes and/or jump over different obstacles.  With people, it takes courage to confront them.

It’s been said that when you walk off a beach, you must shake, then rinse, all the sand out of your flip-flops.  If you fail to take care of that one item, the sand cuts your feet and becomes very abrasive on your skin.  Therefore, clear your flip-flops.

The same goes with carrying around a lot of baggage in your emotional backpack.

—Be certain to leave in your pack only the fruit of your experiences with anyone or any moment.  In other words, clear the air with a friend immediately.   Take care of a situation by speaking up with integrity. 

—If someone hurt you in the past, but you cannot do anything about it—forgive totally and forget.  You may forgive them personally or you can forgive them with a letter or you can forgive them in your mind.  The key: unconditional forgiving unloads your backpack—thus allows you to reload it with positive emotions.

—When negative thoughts ride on your mind, consciously decide to change your mind’s track, like a CD.  Choose to switch to a happy song, happy poem, tranquil moment, wilderness vision or anything that brings a smile to your face.

—You better believe that life tosses you endless challenges and people who try to wreck your journey.  Move away from their energy and their countenance.  That may mean finding a new job, mate, friend, spouse or any of a dozen choices.

This life offers you the choice of “high vibrational frequency living”.  That means you carry in your backpack only the items that enhance your body, mind and spirit.  Once you move into the habit of positive thoughts, positive outcomes and positive living—you will find yourself at the top of any mountain.  From there, you can see 360 degrees from horizon to horizon.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

##