Leave baggage at the door

We all carry around a lot of baggage with us. Metaphorically speaking. Though my handbag weighs a ton too. There’s day to day issues to deal with, like money juggling, bills to pay, homework to do, through to all kinds of emotional baggage – periods, hooray! Not to mention what we carry around from our childhoods. But no matter how heavy our baggage, we can choose how we carry it. Let me explain.

At Royal Holloway, University of London where I studied Drama and Theatre Studies, an exercise one of my tutors led each day has always stuck with me. Before starting the work of the day, she asked us to go to the door and mime taking off all the baggage that we had (metaphorically speaking) brought with us that day. The first time we did this, we all thought it was a little weird, but boy, did it work. As we each pulled off our "bags"; we all entered the rehearsal space with a lighter step and a more positive outlook, not to mention how improved our focus was.

I am not suggesting now that every place you go to, you stand in the doorway and start miming taking off invisible bags (let's keep this safely in the rehearsal room), but I would ask you to think about how you step through a door. Again let me explain.

I teach drama to young people. I love watching how students step through the door into my classroom. More often than not, they step through that doorway and bring in all that baggage. I can see it in their postures (often slumped), their lack of a greeting (say "good morning/afternoon", it goes a long way both for you and the person you are greeting!) and in their tired facial expressions. Don’t get me wrong; if I was studying for my GCSE’s or whatnot again, I would probably be knackered too. You can’t do anything about taking your GCSE’s (another example might be you can’t do anything about your boss being annoying) but we can do little things to change our mindset such as walking through a doorway with a positive attitude.

Try it. Today, every doorway you walk through, hold your head up high, smile, say good morning/afternoon to the person on the other side and imagine leaving all your baggage at the door. Then see how you feel.