I am currently fighting the plight of unpacking. A few weeks ago, I managed to stuff my apartment into my car and drive 3,000 miles to live back home. My car was full! Packed with cargo on top and items stacked almost to the brim inside. Fortunately I was able to maneuver enough things where I did not obstruct my rear view. It took me about a week to get everything ready. Between packing my car, cleaning my apartment and shipping items home, those weeks were a mess. Very stressful too as I was also taking classes. But I made it safely and ended up finishing the term with straight A’s.
However, it’s the unpacking that I have yet to defeat. I think it's because there is not the same rush and time limit I had when packing. But I am finally getting around to it and I have noticed something funny. When I was packing, there were some things that I felt like were important and worth keeping. I am not sure if that’s because I wanted to hold onto pieces of my life in California or that I was so stressed out I didn’t make reasonable judgments on some items. This came to me when I was unpacking some of the boxes I shipped. I was surprised by some of the items and thought why did I pack this? Those items seemed so random after the move.
I love recognizing the contrast in my views and values given different emotional states. I liked California and there were definitely things I wanted to hold on from my time there. But when you're packing it is really hard to let some things go. Stress can give you more attachment and have you place things a higher value to yourself then what they actually are. Laughing at some of things I packed has helped me to realizes how distorting stress can be.
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