10 Ways To Deal With Your Baggage Before Dating Again
Whether you're happy with your current single status or not, it's a great time to reflect on your life and your baggage from previous relationships. It's important to do some soul searching and deal with any emotional baggage you have. If you don't move on and let go of things that don't matter anymore, you'll never be able to be happy with yourself, and especially not happy in future relationships. These are some ways to deal with your emotional baggage before you jump back into the dating world.
One of the biggest parts of emotional baggage is guilty. You have to realize you have the choice not to feel guilty for things that happened in your past, such as why your last relationship ended. Stop thinking "what if?" and replace it with more positive thoughts and affirmations.
You can't love anyone else until you learn to love yourself so it's important to work on yourself before jumping into a relationship. The best way to deal with baggage is to see what it's trying to teach you and use it for the good of your self-growth.
A lot of the emotional baggage you're carrying around is probably related to dating or from a past relationship. Although you might not think you're carrying this into relationships with you, it could be weighing on your mind and wreaking havoc on your state of inner peace. Try and destress about dating and embrace the single life while you have it.
Your ex might be the reason you have so much emotional baggage so you have to forget whatever your ex said about you. Whether they were mean and put you down or unsupportive, they clearly didn't know what they were talking about. It's sadly all too easy to carry these bad thoughts and opinions with you into a new relationship, but it can threaten its success. The best thing to do is to focus on your opinion about yourself instead of that of your ex or anyone else for that matter.
No one wants to have a relationship with someone angry all the time so try to unwrap your anger before you explore dating again. Behind anger is hurt so take the time to figure out what's got you feeling so much pain. Get to the bottom of it before anger spreads to a new relationship that you're just starting.
Anger isn't the only baggage that you need to unpack to be happy in your life. Any sort of negative feelings hanging around will create obstacles in your mind and life. They can also cause you to feel stuck in the past. Unblock all of your feelings to truly understand how to find happiness.
Fear is another super harmful feeling to carry into a new relationship. You might've been hurt badly in the past and are afraid to give your heart to someone again. Or maybe you're afraid of commitment or stepping out of your comfort zone. Whatever your fear is, try to fight your fear so you can focus on the positives in your life.
Sometimes emotional baggage from your previous relationship can be triggered by reminders of your ex that you've still got lying around. It's time to burn your box of things you've collected from previous relationships (we know you have one, everyone does) or give it away to charity. You'll feel better when you're not dragged back to the past every time you see them in the corner of your cupboard.
If you find you just can't navigate your emotional baggage on your own, that's okay too! Don't be afraid to ask for help or speak to a professional, such as a psychologist. They'll be able to help you find the tools to work through whatever's plaguing you because sometimes it helps to have someone from outside of your head give you some perspective on your issues.
