When The Only Option Is To Leave Everything Behind
Sometimes the only option is to leave everything behind. It’s not about cowardice or giving up. People who choose to pack their bags and turn their eyes to the horizon are really brave. Because in the end you get tired of having a broken heart, of crying when no one sees, and before the wind blows your soul away, you have to get out and start in a new place.
To leave everything behind is not to forget everything you have been through or to throw away all your identities and ties. It is only to transform yourself, to integrate your past, your present and a desire for the future into an entity capable of creating itself instead of being satisfied with its suffering and pain. Like a sandcastle on the edge of the sea, a life of suffering cannot be maintained.
In a way , we all experience this feeling, or we will do it at some point. The feeling that part of your surroundings has lost its meaning or withered away. Some people have a desperate need to experience new things, while others just need to get away from everything around them for their own physical and / or emotional health.
Whatever the reason, it is not easy to leave everything behind. In addition to your luggage, you take with you fear and uncertainty, and even though your mind tells you to let go, your heart feels incapable of closing your suitcase.
On this page, we often discuss how the brain does not like change. Change involves risks, and is therefore a challenge to your survival. But in some situations, your emotions, instincts and behaviors send warning signals to you.
Say, for example, that you are going through a period of intense stress and your demanding environment has led you to the breaking point. You let yourself be swept away by the relentless tide. But one day, when it’s time to take the train to work, your feet and your mind go in a different direction. You start walking and walking, until you get to the outskirts of the city without really knowing why. There you will find peace, rest and balance.
You needed to escape. Your survival instinct suddenly took over the reins and offered you what you needed most: distance and silence. The brain does not like change, but remember that it will do everything it can to survive. The invitation to leave everything behind you indicates a need for self-care that you should not ignore.
Let’s take a look at the interesting example of John Tierney – a New York Times journalist whose book Willpower, which describes his own experiences of stress, anxiety and external pressure, became a bestseller.
He explained that when you maintain self-control for too long, you can destroy yourself. Living in oppressive situations will cause you to break down sooner or later. Your brain will punch the table and make you realize that you are either making a change, or you are losing everything.
If the life you live now does not fit into your inner puzzle, you should go. If you are a stranger in your own life, go out and find yourself. If your reality is full of sharp edges, fly away. Your physical and emotional health will thank you.
Only you can make the decision to leave everything behind. For some people, making small changes is enough to improve their well-being. For others, gradual change will not do the trick. It will not relieve, heal or fix anything. They need to take a bigger step to put more distance between themselves and the things that once defined them.
Below we will offer some strategies to reflect on.
When you leave everything behind, you have to remember why you do it and what your goals are. When you have a “why”, you can come up with a “how”. If you want to make a change, you must do it effectively, so that you can be who you really want to be: someone who is happy, who takes control, who takes risks.
When navigating these emotional time waves , it is necessary to perform some self-reflection. The best answer to what you should or should not do is within you.
Leaving everything behind does not mean fleeing. Therefore, you should state very clearly why you are doing it. Assure yourself of your desires and needs. Take full control of your actions.
. How to deal with your fears and insecurities. How? By making them hope.
Finally, remember that your only purpose in life is to grow. But you have to find the best place to do it, because not all places are healthy places to take root.
