A blog of mine from a while ago. Some things never go out of fashion. The wisdom of how to let go of old hurts certainly doesn’t.
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How often do you carry old hurts around with you? It’s called emotional baggage. I call it emotional rubbish. But it can be hard to let go.
A powerful thing to remember in this situation is that the person who caused this hurt is probably not affected by it at all. You’ve probably sneaked into their timeline on Twitter or Facebook and read about their wonderful parties, the promotion in the job, the fancy holidays. And it’s become annoying as well. So now you have the hurt to contend with because it’s lingering and there’s the annoyance too. But the reality is that you are the only person who is hurting. You are the only one who is annoyed by the situation. What an awful thing to do to yourself.
That person still has power over you. Who gave him/her that right? You did. Why would you pay him/her that huge honour? And if you could let go of this hurt right now just imagine the cheeriness that could flood your mind.
What we have to do is to make a conscious decision to let go of what doesn’t serve us anymore. I hope this story, together with the words above, will help you to do that. I read it years ago but it has never left me. And although it’s a special week for us Christians, I see nothing wrong with drawing from other spiritual traditions.
There were two Buddhist monks walking by a river which they had to cross. The current was strong. They saw a woman on the river bank who looked terrified of crossing it and she asked them for help. But their religious vows meant that they could have no physical contact with females.
However the older monk picked her up on his back and proceeded to cross to the other side where he gently placed her down. The young man couldn’t believe his eyes. He was shocked and dismayed. After re-joining his companion he was speechless and an hour passed without a word between them.Then the younger monk could no longer contain himself and he blurted out “You know that as monks we are not permitted to touch a woman. So how could you carry that woman on your back?”
The older monk looked at him and with a smile said: ‘My brother, I set her down on the other side of the river but you are the one who is still carrying her.’
Be the older monk. Let go of the hurt now.
Bibi Baskin is a former TV Presenter who has lived in India for many years. She now lives in Cork and is spending this Covid time studying, writing and eating way too many curries.
