Weekly Meditations for the Writer: What are you carrying in your backpack?

Take a moment to look back into your past because everything we are today in terms of our personality and the way we perceive life has been influenced by this. In other words, all the experiences we have had that include all the emotions we have felt through childhood as well as all good and bad things that may have happened to us, make us the person we are today. You see, as we grow up, our thinking is shaped by all of these messages, which has to a large degree prejudiced us. All children are born innocent and pure. They are sponges and will absorb whatever the parents, caregivers and society put in them. Look around and you will see some adults instinctively kind and generous whilst others are just angry, malicious and violent, yet all of them started from the same point. It is easy to blame them, yet in some ways they are a product of their conditioning. It is therefore very important we look at the past that has shaped us because it may actually be blocking the love and abundance from entering our life.

The laws of Karma will ensure that the more we accept our negative behavior, the more we attract chaos into our life! Since we all carry our prejudices, it is important to ask what is in our backpack. The very things that are stopping the “light” from entering our lives may be in this backpack! Past resentments, bottled-up anger and grudges are some of the obvious ones that are found in most backpacks, and it is time to empty out the pack and let them go or you will carry them to the grave. Forgiveness is a very liberating force!

There are of course some very important positive things in the backpack too. The experiences that have enlightened us, the love we have given and received, the lessons that have taught us—all these are blessings that need to be remembered. However, the bitterness of all the negative things we carry from all those past hurts and grudges block out the light. By emptying them from the backpack, all that will remain are the blessings, and these will in turn attract more of the same your life. Letting go of these past resentments is not easy and it is important that some time is set aside each day to empty out the backpack. This can be done through some focused meditations. Just remember that by removing all the negative attachments, we are changing our karma, and this will automatically attract more abundance and light into our life.

Anil Giga Bsc is the author of The Invisible Way (USA Best Book Award) and an Investment Professional in Calgary.