4. Your baggage is not any worse than the next person.

Your baggage is not worse, it’s just different. But if you are hard on yourself about your mistakes and your stuff, you heap shame onto your soul.

Shame is toxic to your depression, your anxiety, your trauma, or your emotions. Shame is like a set of lenses that become superglued to your soul. They color your world, making it so difficult to speak up, open up and just talk. You sense judgment everywhere and you have no freedom. God wants you to love Him and to love yourself.

Don’t ignore your baggage, acknowledge it. But hold onto hope rather than shame.

For more about shame, I highly recommend watching this video by Brene’ Brown on “Listening to Shame.“