"Won't Let Go": The Emotional Attachment With Belongings

"A man’s Self is the sum total of all that he can call his" -William James (The Principles of Psychology, 1890)

Have you ever thought of throwing away that watch which had stopped working, that gift from your father? Or moving out of the house in which you spent your golden childhood?Or even deleting your favorite song from the playlist?

Implausible, isn't it!

From our childhood itself, we develop an emotional attachment with several inanimate objects. The dearest toy that you would share with no one or the routine lunch plate and water bottle without which you wouldn't have food at all; are examples of emotional attachment.

The sentiment for objects arises out of a sense of ownership. Once you feel that something is yours, in fact- 'only yours', you develop an attachment with it. You feel wealthy and the mere thought of losing that object distresses you. It also extends to being obsessively supportive and engrossed in a film, TV show, team or certain political views. All the tears shed in the theatre at Tony Stark's death in Avengers testify this.

Childhood and Teenage:

As the fire of youth rushes through your blood, the feeling of 'possession' surges. You now have so many things to call your own and get habitual to- school bag, lunch-box, the Nike shoes, the Adidas t-shirt, Sony headphones, books, the fuzzy teddy bear and so on. It is easier to get attached to objects than humans, as objects don't demand or speak for themselves like people do. Hence, you take it upon yourself to defend 'your' stuff and won't let go of them.

Our Starlord's love for his Walkman

These objects eventually become an extension of yourself that hold you back from breaking through into a new self; just like a cocoon obstructs the breakthrough of a butterfly

Adulthood and Beyond:

We regularly update our music playlist but have our parents cherishing songs by Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik. Did they stop updating their playlists when they were young?

Older people are attached to certain brands and styles. We have heard our grandparents lovingly recall the Murphy Radio and laud the talent of R. D. Burman. And we still have that radio sitting desolated on the top shelf and the music CDs stacked beside. You dare not touch them!

Letting Them Go..:

As these belongings accumulate, they become more infused with our identity and we begin to draw energy and esteem from them. Their loss is too much to bear. But we need to let go.

Letting go of these sentimental connections is like 'ecdysis'- the shedding of old skin by a snake. It is the revelation of a new identity. Similar to snakes, it enables the discovery of your renewed self, beyond the shackles of memory and parasitic emotion these attachments had held you in.

A fresh start awaits you. All you need to do is just let go..

Hoarding all your stuff is a type of extremism. Moderation allows you to keep 'some' of your stuff. Read on..

https://wrytin.com/juhiwani/black-or-white-the-need-for-moderation-jxhd8v0m