Does All This Make You Happy? A guide to living from Repacking Your Bags

Posted May 24, 2011 @ 4:09 PM | by Marianne Wells

Spring cleaning is underway!! Cleaning up the garden. Cleaning windows and screens to let in the fresh air. Cleaning the car of the winter's sand and salt. Cleaning out the closets of items that seemed worth keeping at the end of last summer but don't seem that nice now. Cleaning up my desk and inbox of the clutter from putting things off too long while traveling to/from Costa Rica to conduct trainings.  It's time to clean!

The approach of warm weather also has a lot of people thinking about cleaning out their desk at work - voluntary or otherwise. I just finished reading Repacking Your Bags - Lighten Your Load For the Rest Of Your LIfe by Richard Leider and David Shapiro. It's a great book that focuses on one question - Does all this make you happy? A simple question posed to one of the authors by a Masai tribesman while on safari after viewing all of the "stuff" that he proudly and laboriously toted through the African plains. As he thought about the question Leider assessed whether the "stuff" really made him happy and began to place value on each item. But the deeper meaning was not lost on him - for what he thought he needed said a lot about his core values in life. As he evaluated his load, Leider realized he was hauling many things that did nothing for his happiness, and repacked his load - giving away many of the items to the Masai. It was a profound metaphor for how he would approach his life, for in unburdening his load he was able to walk lighter, and enjoy the journey.

The authors state that the book "takes a whole person approach that takes into account four elements critical to a successfully integrated life - work, love, place, and purpose." They use the metaphor of travel and baggage to remind us that life is a journey and our experiences are "bound up in the baggage - emotional, intellectual, and physical" that we carry through life. "Ultimately, we're all in transition - always."  I recently posted on Facebook one of my favorite quotes -"Nothing changes - if nothing changes". How we handle life's changes are most important.

Leider and Shapiro provide a simple checklist of the seven essentials to carry with you.  I like the use of the number seven here as it is referenced throughout sacred and philosophical texts. The checklist uses travel objects as metaphors for our life journey and provide questions to ask ourselves. Rather than telling us what we need, the authors skillfully ask us to pose questions to ourselves, and in doing so find ways to uncover our core values.

Passport - a sense of purpose or reason for the trip.  I always ask my yoga students to connect with their sense of purpose, the reason they are in my class or teacher training, the reason why they are here on this earth.  For when you know your purpose, you have clarity about yourself.  The checklist asks - Have I uncovered my purpose?  "The trip lesson: The secret of life is to discover your purpose.  Purpose is your reason for being.  We must ask ourselves regularly: Why do I get up in the morning?"

Baggage - stuff I need to get me where I'm going.  They ask is the stuff making you happy or is it just weighing you down? Again my Facebook friends have seen me recently post another of my favorite quotes - " The best things in life are not things."  The authors provide the trip lesson: "Having a good life has more to do with experiencing than with having.  We must ask ourselves regularly: Does all this make me happy?"

Map - A sense of direction for my life.  Journeys, to discover new places, new people, new ways of living, new perspectives on our core values.  And if nothing else, journeys as an affirmation that if you live in the very place you were born, the inner peace that home is where your heart is.  Are you living in the place that you belong, or at least headed in that direction?  Or do you feel trapped?  The trip lesson: "Freedom to choose is our most powerful possession.  We must ask ourselves regularly: Am I choosing this or did it choose me?"

In Marianne Wells Yoga School we study the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali where we learn that karma is a neutral force that is set in motion by our own minds.  The sufi poet Rumi wrote in the 8th or 9th century - " Why do you choose to stay in jail when the door is so wide open?"  We are trapped only when we let our minds let us feel trapped.  The beautiful lesson from yoga is that we have a choice - we always have a choice. Steven Jobs - co-founder of Apple - stated that he asks himself every day if he loves what he does, and if the answer is no for too many days in a row he knows it's time for change.

Traveler's Checks - Enough money to enjoy the trip.  The right amount of money - and not to be consumed with the acquisition of more and more money (and more stuff) , but enough to enjoy our life journey. Oftentimes this may mean cutting back on work or responsibility to enjoy the precious few days of living life to the fullest.  Even playing hooky for a day or an afternoon from work can recharge the batteries and make us even more committed and productive in our jobs.  How many of us would trade 2% of our pay for an extra week's vacation? The question: "Am I doing the right work?"  Optimally this will align with our sense of purpose, and our sense of direction.  The trip lesson: "By having less in our lives, we often get more out of life.  We must ask ourselves regularly: How much is enough?"

Address Book - Contacts with loved ones.  "Am I having courageous conversations with the people I love?"  The meaning to take away from this item on life's trip checklist is to be fully open and honest with everyone in our lives - especially those we love.  Only then can we unburden the feelings of disapproval, of unfulfilled expectations, and be free to be the person we are meant to be...or at least explore to find ourselves more fully.   Be free to truly enjoy the beauty of close relationships, with openness, appreciation, and support.  The trip lesson: "Fulfilling relationships depend on our capacity to fully unpack with another person.  We must ask ourselves regularly: Am I willing to unpack with this person?"

In yoga we are taught to seek the truth, to ask questions in order to fully understand another, without attaching our own feelings, emotions, and prejudices.  Steven Covey states to "Seek to understand before seeking to be understood."  We must be fully truthful, even if it means that sometimes relationships end.  For who wants to live a life of loneliness shrouded within a relationship?  In this way our true selves can shine forth and we are free to be our fullest expression of ourselves.  And with every closed door there is another side filled with opportunity.

Travel Journal - travel lessons learned from past trips. "Do I have a listening point - a place to renew myself?  Yogis know that a daily practice including meditation is the way to conduct our inner journey.  For it is within that we find our true meaning and spirit.  The trip lesson: "No one can define the good life for us.  We must ask ourselves regularly: Am I living in the place where I belong, with the people I love, doing the right work, on purpose?"

Adventuring Spirit - courage to choose my own itinerary.  Many of my students attend training either after or prior to extended travel periods - often backpacking or traveling the world.  They don't know exactly what they want, but they know the best way to find it is to get away from familiar surroundings and head off into the great unknown.  For in that journey they will find themselves and experience a lot more than they can ever get from TV, internet, or magazines.  The authors ask: Am I willing to get lost?  The trip lesson:"It often takes a crisis - getting lost - to get us thinking about what we're carrying.  We must ask ourselves regularly: What am I carrying and why?"

Leider closes the book with a touching personal story about a trip back to visit the wise Masai tribal elder who leaves him with a feeling that "we all know somewhere deep inside- that our true value is more than what we do, how much we make, or how many things we own - it's simply who we are."  The Masai elder tells him to live in the present - not in the past nor in the future.  " You can only enjoy now, no matter how rich you are.  It all comes to an end soon."

Leider boils down the wisdom from the Masai as  "Live passionately for today, and purposefully for tomorrow".  A powerful and wise piece of advice to heed indeed.

May your life journey make you happy.  Because happiness is THE WAY.  Happy repacking to all.

Shanti,

Marianne

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Category: Inspired Philosophy
Tags: Richard Leider, David Shapiro, Repacking Your Bags, Marianne Wells Yoga School, Yoga Teacher Training, Steven Covey, Rumi, Marianne Wells, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali