It’s the New Year: Releasing Emotional Baggage
Along the Mediterranean in southern Italy on New Year’s Eve, we learn to let go to make room for something new. We do well to clean house and rid ourselves of unnecessary weight and baggage.
Letting Go: An Italian Custom
A New Year’s Eve tradition in southern Italy speaks of letting go to make room for something new. Custom dictates that individuals part with an item, usually a possession. These old items are tossed out the window; thus, the last day of the year is one of decluttering and releasing. Ergo, the first day of the New Year becomes a day with some freed-up space for that new end table, bookcase, or trinket.
Depending on where you are in the divorce process, you’ve likely noticed how difficult it can be to move along to your new life, and how difficult it is to find peace. Letting go of old, stagnant ideas and making room for new, beautiful ones is a good place to start. My grandmother often says, “I delete old memories to make room for new memories.”
If you find yourself with old, stagnant thoughts, here’s how I recommend you to start afresh.
How I Let Go of Baggage
During my divorce, I had to say goodbye to my house and a few other possessions. The sound of my bread maker often sent me spiraling downward, for that was the sound of family, daily breakfasts, and the smells of home. (If I had been in Italy, I’d have chucked this right out the window.)
My house had memories both good and bad that caused regression. So, I took the advice from an Italian New Year’s Eve custom and cleaned house—this included selling my home. Eventually, I wrote a letter in poetry form to my beautiful house on 18th Street requesting it set me free. I wrote many other such letters during the divorce process. I burned them; I buried them—I never sent them.
Finding Freedom from Emotional Baggage
Entanglements come in all shapes and sizes: unhealthy thinking patterns, bread makers, Christmas tree ornaments, screened-in porches, and lovely white houses on 18thStreet.
We do well to clean house and rid ourselves of unnecessary weight. Entanglements and entrapments belong in the dump!
Along the Mediterranean in southern Italy on New Year’s Eve, a grandmother, a son, a mother teach us how to free ourselves of entanglements and entrapments: Toss your baggage right out. Just let it go.
Let 2020 be a year of living lighter, replacing stagnant thoughts and bad memories with new and beautiful ones.
*This article was first published over at divorcemagazine.com. Find it here.
Resources and Links
Grab a copy of my book Hello New Life here.
For books on healing: Check out my Pinterest board.