You can carry a lot of weight on the inside. That shows up on the outside and that can weigh you down. That inside weight will be visible via attitude and appearance and all because of what you’re thinking.
So many people end up in my office because they are weighed down by something that they’re holding onto in the past. That’s right. The heaviest obstacles we must move, are the ones that are in our minds. It really doesn’t matter the size of them either. Even the smallest of things, carried over the right amount of time, can become crippling.
There is an old parable, I am not sure of the origin, that starts with a college professor walking into class. He asks “Can anyone tell me how much this weighs?” (Holding up a bottle of water). A few people take a guess to which the instructor replies “ It doesn’t weigh much.” He went on to talk about the fact that even though it doesn’t weigh much, over the course of time (even though it is small) it begins to feel heavier.
Holding onto unnecessary hurts, thoughts and beliefs systems, is even more damaging than hoarding junk.
Try it. Grab a bottle of water and hold onto it until it is gone. It’s not much of a challenge. However, take the same bottle of water and hold onto it for a few hours, and all of a sudden, your hand feels cramped and your arm feels heavy. Carry it for a day or two, not only can you not move your hand, because you are holding onto the water, you will have now impeded your ability to hold onto anything else with that hand. Crippled by a bottle of water that weighs less than a pound.
Holding onto unnecessary hurts, thoughts and beliefs systems, is even more damaging than hoarding junk. We all have that one drawer that we keep completely useless things in. You know that “just in case” drawer. But in reality, how many times do you really ever use any of those items who permanently reside there? Probably not much, if ever. When you clear that drawer out because you’re moving, or perhaps you’re feeling ambitious on a rainy Sunday afternoon, you wonder why you have been holding onto this junk for all these years? It’s time to de-clutter the mind.
Never underestimate what you hold in your mind.
It is interesting that one of my biggest referral sources comes from the chiropractic world. Someone goes in for a back alignment, but after a few sessions, they show little improvement. Enter a mind alignment. Through coaching or hypnosis, we are able to “de-clutter” the junk drawer in their mind and soon they begin to feel a little better and walk a little easier. That was one of the first things that I learned almost 4 decades ago when I went through massage school—that many of us carry our tension in our backs and stomachs. It makes sense, doesn’t it? That is why we get our shoulders rubbed when we feel tense or, we drink a little ale or put the heating pad on our stomachs when we’re feeling stressed. Never underestimate that what you hold in your mind, will manifest in your body.
So this is your reminder to put the bottle down. Sure, it only weighs a pound. But those small things add up to be a lot of weight on the inside. What is weighing you down on the inside invariably shows up on the outside!
