Walk Away From Your Mental Bagage Claim

Julian Cardona                                                                                                                            8/2/14      
Fr. Albert/ Introduction to the Rule of St. Benedict                                                                    Block: 3

        As young people of this generation, there are many things going on in our lives, many thoughts passing through our heads, and many mental dilemmas we have to deal with. When we take all of this into account, we are overwhelmed and we don't know how to deal with all this "mental baggage" that we have inside of us. It is as if you have arrived at an airport and you decided to put your collection of rocks in your suitcase, do you really need this extra weight with you on your vacation? The same thing happens with our life complications, instead of packing what we actually need into our minds, we pack this "baggage" and it turns into undesirable stress and worry, which instead of helping us, it disturbs our lives even more and makes us suffer. The fact that does not come to mind is that most of this mental weight, worry and suffering is completely unnecessary because most of the things that we spend so much time stressing about are entirely useless, but we think that they aren't. However, there is no need to despair because the simple way to relieve ourselves of these problems is to let them go. Why should we burden ourselves with things that we think are crucial to our lives or emotions and thoughts that we think are worth having headaches for but are actually not? 

        There are endless thoughts, emotions, and fantasies that we constantly call to mind everyday because we believe that they are the foundation of what we think and how we act everyday. As a person who has found himself in these situations and continues to find himself worrying about the unnecessary, I advise all young adolescence to let go. It doesn't matter what it could be, whether it is the suffering of the loss of a close relative, the ridiculous jealousy of what someone has, does, or is, or even staying angry at someone for something that the person said or did, these are all things that we can walk away from. All these and other possible sufferings and stressful situations have to come and go in our lives, we can't go on with life in this mental state because we will never experience joy or take part in casual socialization with certain people including ourselves. The same thing goes for our material possessions such as phones, electronics, or something we wear. We cannot get too attached to the things that we own because they too come and go and once our things are old, worn out, out of style, or don't work anymore, what are we going to do, go into a depression? No! We are called at this age to mature and allow God to give us things in life but at the same time take them away whether they be mental or material. As part of growing up, we are also called to let go and not cling on to the unnecessary problems, emotions, and physical objects that the world has to offer.