Imagine for a moment that it's the end of the day and you are taking out the garbage. What do you do? Most likely you reach under the kitchen sink, pull out the bin, tie up the plastic bag and place it in the trash can.

As you throw out the garbage, is there ever a time when you open the bag and say to yourself, "Let me check this again? Maybe there is something in here I need to hold onto, keep a little longer, examine a little closer, smell again for nostalgic reasons." Do you examine the garbage in order to feel and understand it a bit more? Do you look at it and lock it into your memory so you have a good handle on what the garbage is all about?"

Right now some of you reading this are snickering. Others are saying to themselves, "I don't do that-that's gross. I bundle up my garbage and throw it away."

If that is in fact how you deal with garbage, then why do you hold on for dear life to the garbage filling your mind? You know what I am talking about, all of those negative feelings and emotions like fear, panic, worry and anxiety. The garbage voices and tapes that tell you "It's not possible. You can't handle it. You're not good enough. People don't want to be around you. You'll never amount to anything. You're not pretty or smart enough."

What else is in that garbage that you are holding onto? Dig deeper and you might find past hurts, loneliness, grudges, anger, resentment, the need to control everything and everyone around you. Wounds from the past that fester and remain unhealed are evident. Old memories and images of events that loop in your mind, stuck on replay are found.

You mull over this garbage often trying to make sense of it. You hold onto the garbage as a mode of protection; a reminder to never do that again. You keep it because perhaps one day you might be able to change it or learn from it. Sometimes this garbage is the only connection you have to your childhood or to parents who are no longer part of your life.

The longer you hold onto this garbage the deeper it filters into your emotions, behaviors, body, health, your attitude. Whether it is a belief, thought, feeling, emotion, an imagine, voice or a sound it begins to rot. It starts to stink. It turns into putrid decay within you.

Whatever is going on inside of you is always reflected on the outside. As you hold onto that internal garbage, you wonder why your life, your reality is not the way you want it to be. You wonder why money and love aren't flowing to you--why life is such a struggle--why every situation you find yourself in turns out badly or opposite from your desires. You wonder why your health is deteriorating. Why success is out of your reach.

The answer is simply because you are holding onto garbage in your mind. So what garbage are you holding onto? Is it finally time to let go, or do you need to hold onto that garbage a little while longer?

Esther Bartkiw is a Certified Associate Practitioner of Core Belief Engineering a dynamic belief change therapy. Contact her for a complimentary 15 minute consultation at 905-630-4487. Printed in the Bronte Villager Spring 2008.