Some of us use backpacks as an efficient way to carry a number of objects in a manner that distributes weight without unduly stressing your arms and shoulders. Obviously, even a backpack can be uncomfortable if too much weight is packed into it. Unless you are doing rucking as a form of exercise where you walk with a deliberately filled backpack (or rucksack) to build back and leg muscles, you don’t really want to add unnecessary weight to a backpack. You want your backpack to be as comfortable as possible.
The same principle applies to emotional life. The more unnecessary emotional baggage that you carry with you, the less happy and less productive you are likely to be.
Unnecessary weight can be present in forms such as regrets over past decisions, blaming of yourself or others over something that didn’t turn out well even though it was nobody’s fault, and feelings of guilt and shame are among the other things that add to your emotional load. Each of those become added weight that affect productivity, friendships, motivation and overall happiness.
There are ways of lightening your load. Practicing mindfulness helps you to stay focused on and experience what is happening here and now – which you have more of an ability to control than you have over the events of the past. It is also important to always have meaningful and realistic goals in mind as they can promote the productive behaviors that make positive things happen. And taking the time to examine your backpack (actually your “headpack”) to see if it is filled with some excess weight that is not doing you any good is an important first step. It creates the awareness of the excess weight that you can discard because it is not doing you any good. You owe it to yourself to lighten your load so that what you are carrying around promotes your personal growth and development – and happiness.