A woman new to my apartment complex was sharing with me in conversation that the first time she saw me, she said to herself, “There is someone I would like to know.   There is someone walking around without any baggage.”

That was probably the nicest compliment I have ever received.  It helped me to put things in perspective.  While it feels at times like I am just dragging this body around, because it feels so heavy, or I may be caught up in a heavy emotion, there is definitely something happening.

There has definitely been a lightening of my load, or of the load I insisted upon carrying.

And what I, what we have been carrying, has not beeen ours.  It has been others’ baggage.  We have been hauling others’ heavy luggage around and claiming it as our own.  For lifetimes.

But it’s time to look at the tags on those suitcases.  That one is my mother’s.  That one over there is filled with all the wounds of all of humanity.  Whew, that’s a heavy suitcase!  In fact, that’s several stadiums full of suitcases.

And where we are going, there is no room for any baggage, not even a carry-on.

It gave us a feeling of joy, of service to this planet, and to the rest of humanity, to carry their burdens.  And it wasn’t a bad thing.  But it took its toll on us on many levels.  And it’s no longer required of us.

In fact, if we insist on processing for others, what they can’t do for themselves, or won’t do for themselves, we won’t be able to move into our embodied enlightenment.  We will forefeit our freedom.

But if you resonate with this message, you have let go of lots of baggage too.  You may begin to feel lighter.  Your heart isn’t so heavy as it used to be.  You don’t get so triggered by guilt or sympathy or empathy as much any more.

Thats a big one.  That’s a big deal.  Acknowledge when that happens.  Notice when you feel lighter and don’t respond to others who are in pain, the way you used to.

And you still have the utmost compassion for them, because you have gone through your own pain, and still do to a degree.  But you are not taking on their pain for them.  You are not feeling their pain and making it your own.

And when you do, you recognize it now.  You let your feelings be your guide.  You notice when you suffer along with them.  Or if you begin to feel anxious, or tired.  You don’t berate yourself when it happens.  You just observe it.

And you notice over time, that you feel lighter.  You feel more sensual and that’s spirit coming in closer and amplifying your lightness and joy.  The other heavy feelings may still be on the periphery but they don’t dominate.

When that happens, celebrate.  Rejoice in it because that is a sign you are moving closer to your enlightenment. A place in which the joy factor becomes the new set point in a big way.

it doesn’t mean all the other emotions never return, but it means you are mastering your emotions.  You are identifying more with your eternal self.  And you never have to go back to a place that felt so dark.

And over time your physical body begins to benefit.

This process does require an extraordinary amount of patience and compassion….not for others so much anymore but for OURSELVES.  FOR OURSELVES.  And we are doing it in love for all of humanity, but not in the old way any more.  Not in the way of sacrifice and burdening ourselves with anything that isn’t ours.

We are doing it now in a way that will make the history books.  We are showing a new way of BEING.  And this new way is the solution to all the world’s dilemmas.