Over the years we collect experiences, memories, and relationships. We carry thoughts of our past and aspirations of our future. But there’s something else that we carry silently, deep in our hearts. We carry the burden of things that we may have done, or not done when we should have, that may have led to consequences. Our current responsibilities sometimes overawe us and we silently carry the burden of expectations, anxiety, and uncertainty. On reflecting, we will realise that we cannot be happy and give our best if we silently carry a burden.

What is done is done. Even as we wish we could turn back the clock, we know we cannot. But we can turn around our life if we learn to deal with the burden we are carrying.

If we carry the burden of guilt, then we must find it in ourselves to make a sacrifice and make a difference in someone’s life. The two may not be connected, but it is our way of making amends for something, by doing something good somewhere else.

If we carry the burden of mistakes, then we must share our stories, and make them a powerful opportunity for others to learn from. When we make our burden a stepping stone for someone else, it no longer remains a burden.

If we carry the burden of regret at lost opportunities, then we must rediscover our infinite ability to imagine, innovate, and break our own limited boundaries, creating bigger and better opportunities for ourselves.

If we carry the burden of shame, then we need to first accept our imperfections and then find our inner resolve and discipline to remake ourselves. Each one of us has cracks we live with, and sometimes it is these very cracks that allow the light of reflection and change to emerge from within.

If we live with the burden of anxiety, then we need to develop our faith and confidence, that if we genuinely put ourselves to it, no problem is too big to surmount and no situation so difficult that we cannot find an answer to.

When we sit in silence and allow the buried burdens to come to our conscious awareness, we will start understanding why our flow in life sometimes gets disrupted and why we feel agitated, even when most things seem to be in place. That is when we will realise that even though we can’t go back in time, we have the time, starting today, to maybe make amends and build a great life for ourselves. And it is time to put down the burdens we are living with.

(Picture-Village of Crail, Scotland)