By Aaliyah Moore
“One day all them bags gon’ get in yo way…”
I was six years old when Erykah Badu released Bag Lady. I loved the tune of the song, but had no idea what the song even meant. Now twenty years later, the lyrics make so much more sense, and have given me a mantra to live by: pack light.
What is baggage?
The word baggage has a few different meanings, but for the sake of this article, I’m going to focus on:
The past experiences or long-held ideas that are regarded as burdens and impediments.
At some point in all of our lives, I am sure we can attest to holding on to some unnecessary baggage. Whether it’s hurt from past relationships or trauma that occurred in our childhoods, these issues have a way of becoming strongholds in our life, and they prevent us from moving forward and cultivating healthy connections in the future.
Baggage can look like a range of emotions such as fear, anger, judgement, guilt and insecurities. While it is human nature to experience these emotions from time to time, the issue arises when we allow them to lay dormant inside of us keeping us bound.
“You wanna fly, you got to give up the sh**t that weighs you down,” -Toni Morrison
I’ve lived long enough to know that none of us are exempt from being hurt. It’s inevitable. But what I’ve also learned is that I have the ability to process my emotions from what hurt me, learn from them, and move past them. Too often, we try to bury our emotions or bottle them up in an attempt to not feel them anymore, and that does nothing for us.
To truly be set free, it’s important to acknowledge what’s holding us back, accept it, forgive those who may have wronged us, and then do the work of getting past it.
Aaliyah Moore is a contributing writer for the Pedestal Project, LLC.
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