One of the greatest enemies to experiencing true love is one of the most widely known but least understood. It is commonly classified as baggage. Everyday this seemingly invisible monster corrodes the best of relationships, marriages and intentions.

Distressingly, some men and women, unwittingly struggle with their own baggage, short-circuiting their opportunity for a nutritious and healthy love. Are you one of those individuals? In only the manner in which he can, the maestro, Frank Chase Jr., walks us through this touchy subject and guides us to restoration, hope and rejuvenation as he declares, Dont Claim Baggage Pain!

Sir, Maam, Wheres My Baggage?
Frequent flyer miles, checking baggage, dodging folks, and darting through crowds not to miss a flight are the mundane happenings of airport life. Once travelers arrive at their destination, they wait for baggage. It can be a taxing event on the body and especially on the emotions.

When bags arent waiting, some travelers become indignant because something important to them is missing. If we look at the disfigured facial features of people while they are lugging, checking, and claiming their baggage, youd think losing the load might be a good thing. The truth is; for various reasons we are emotionally attached to our baggage and react when our possessions are not wheretheyre supposed to be.

What Is Baggage?
When it comes to sex, love gone astray, past relationships and failed marriages; I call our need to carry around this burdensome load, B.A.G.G.A.G.E.

What is B.A.G.G.A.G.E.?

It is: Burdens Attached Grievously, Gradually And Given Egregiously.

The Lingering Effects
Life sometimes resembles airport hustle and bustle. We become frequent flyers who shuffle and scramble through lifes gates looking for missing emotional baggage that should remain lost. If we cant find the precious items, we feel naked.

Unfortunately, many people who carry harmful baggage dont realize its there until someone who truly loves andsincerely cares about them, brings it to their attention.

Although it grieves them to carry it, regrettably, some men and women are happily married to their B.A.G.G.A.G.E. So much so that they unwittingly give it away to others egregiously. To give this load away is a bad mistake. When the symptoms of B.A.G.G.A.G.E pain shows up in relationships, ugly events happen to people. Burdens given grievouslyalmost always hurts both the owner and the receiver.

Like in an airport, the claim checker receives the brunt of the anger for B.A.G.G.A.G.E gone astray. So it is in relationships; the person carrying B.A.G.G.A.G.E hurts the one closest to him.

In the marketplace of relationships, men and women sometimes carry dead baggage from days gone by. They fly from relationship to relationship like a human jetliner with the belly of their souls stuffed with molestation, divorce, financial ruin, regret, abuse and many issues relived on the reel-to-reel screen of their minds. Some call this baggage soul ties. The knot of past baggage eventually warps self-esteem and confidence.

Others feel naked if they allow what is so obviously dangerous to be ripped from their identity like a limb torn from a body. Its called yesterdays B.A.G.G.A.G.E.

Can you feel the heaviness now?

B.A.G.G.A.G.E that stands like a constant pillar internally must be torn down by the wrecking ball of "Clearing away the wreckage from the past" "12 steps" :)

Is B.A.G.G.A.G.E Defining Who You Are?
B.A.G.G.A.G.E is a prop that serves as a substitute for intimacy and prevents us from adopting healthy rules of engagement for life. If we allow it, B.A.G.G.A.G.E will define who we are and will prevent us from realizing the many positive benefits of letting this oppressive load go. Instead, we spend precious time looking for the past and keep it tied to our lives like an oppressive ball and chain.

Some wear their B.A.G.G.A.G.E. like cheap gold-plated jewelry. Their B.A.G.G.A.G.E. corrodes and eats away at any and every relationship they enter into.

Some need B.A.G.G.A.G.E to fake it and make it. With their claimed pain, they morph into another person and become a changeling.

You say, Whats a changeling?

Its a Star Trek alien who can appear in different forms when necessary.

For example, pain, anger and joy can transform who we are from the inside out. If lifes circumstances can define us, then the experiences can change us. One minute were having a good time dancing to the music of life, then suddenly we come out the box and attack because something triggered a nerve because a piece of our B.A.G.G.A.G.E went missing and set off a roadside bomb from our past.

Too many relationships turn out like song from the Carol Burnett show: Im so glad we had this time together. Just to have a laugh or sing a song; seems we just get started and before you know it, comes the time we have to say so long. We dive into a thirty-minute commitment for sex, then say good-bye and off we go into another relationship, pouring hurt into innocent people.

This is the B.A.G.G.A.G.E of a disastrous relationship.

So get the junk out of the trunk of your life.

Becoming Real With The Man or Woman In The Mirror
There was a time I wouldnt admit I carried Burdens Attached Grievously, Gradually And Given Egregiously around my mind as if it was a precious emerald. I held onto my B.A.G.G.A.G.E claim ticket of yesterdays vexing pain. I had my red wagon stacked and piled high with rotting junk. I pulled and carried the wagon pain for years.

At times, when incidents arose, my B.A.G.G.A.G.E became defense mechanisms at my disposal to camouflage myself and my painfrom whomever I thought were predators.

B.A.G.G.A.G.E destroyed my ability to connect on an emotional level.

It created static in my communication with women.

But I learned not to claim B.A.G.G.A.G.E pain. I learned to eliminate it.

Dump the junk out of your wagon.