Everyone carries some emotional baggage. Some aren't as heavy as others but I believe we all have our own. I understand emotional baggage to be psychological scars left behind by mostly unprocessed negative emotions from past and possibly recurring experiences. People process emotions differently and what may weigh down on one person emotionally may be very insignificant and weightless to someone else.
I have my share of emotional baggage. Mostly from childhood experiences and a few from later occurrences. Some I've always known I have and others I just discovered recently.
Like everything else that's a problem, the first step to solving it is recognizing that there's a problem. This is the same with dealing with emotional baggage. Most times signs and clues to emotional baggage may show as behavioural patterns and repeated specific responses to some situations that may act as triggers.
It isn't always obvious but the signs are almost always there. For me, it's mostly unexpected outbursts that others may perceive as overreacting. Honestly, it catches me off guard too sometimes but some inner reflection can point me in the direction of why it happens which eventually leads me to how to deal with it.
Dealing with the effects of emotional baggage on my self-worth
Being a very sensitive person emotionally makes me attuned to other people's emotions toward me, It also makes me read meanings into the slightest things. Sometimes my interpretation of people's actions ends up being a lot deeper than what they supposedly intended but I've learned to listen to my intuition in these situations and it has worked out well so far.
Most of my emotional baggage took (takes) a toll on my self-worth. In an attempt to recover from them I decided to learn to be self-sufficient. I try my best to be everything I need for myself so I won't have to go out seeking solace from someone else and risk being shut down or disappointed as I have been on different occasions.
This has helped greatly but I've done it so much that asking for or accepting help even from someone genuine has become difficult. In situations where letting someone in is ideal, I tend to insist on riding the waves alone and this isn't always good for me. The solution to my problem grew to become an issue lol but I'm beginning to accept that no matter how self-sufficient I've become I still need people to lean on when things become too overwhelming.
Dealing with self-doubt and the feeling of not being enough
In addition to being emotionally sensitive, I'm pretty strong-willed. Once I'm set on a path, it's difficult to make me stray from it. This ability has made me channel my frustrations from the negativity being thrown at me into doing something productive. Mostly in an attempt to prove to myself that I can achieve what I've been told I can't and most times I do just that which is great. This has helped a lot with the self-doubt that came about as a result of being put down and being told negative things that I tend to believe sometimes.
Another effect of my emotional baggage is constantly comparing myself to others. This isn't conscious but it happens. Growing up I was compared to people a lot. This created a mental picture of what I'm supposed to be like. It happened a lot that I sometimes forget that I'm uniquely me and I don't have to be like anyone but myself.
I'm still working on fully accepting this, It has to be the most difficult thing to deal with among others. My progress here may be slow but It's definitely happening. I'm looking forward to the time when my first mental instinct in some situations isn't to compare myself to someone else but something more positive and healthy. Hopefully, it'll be soon😊.
This is my response to this week's KISS hot question. I'd like to invite @theawesononso to share a #KISS blog with us.
The image was designed by me with a free image on canva.
Thanks for reading! Your time is greatly appreciated❤️
