A ways back I was working with a client who showed me a big, beat up, taped together cardboard box that she'd been hiding in the back of her closet. She was drained and speechless. There was a lot of sorrow associated with what lay inside.
I said, "Oh, I was wondering where you were hiding your kryptonite." Many of my clients have at least one thing in their home that drastically drains them of their vital energy.
The contents of this box turned out to be legal papers. She brought a lawsuit against a company she used to work for. She had been improperly fired. She got a huge settlement. That was over ten years ago. I asked if she needed to hang onto the papers for legal reasons. She said no.
I said, "Can we let them go?" She sadly said no. She confessed she wanted to hang onto the papers as a warning, to keep her alert, so that nothing like that would ever happen to her again. She looked completely hallow. Her eyes were gaunt. She looked like she was in prison.
I said, "Did you have warning signs just before you were fired that you could have used to prevent the dire situation?" She thought about it. She surprised herself with the realization of, "No."
I said, "Things happen. They show up out of nowhere. And they can hurt. They can hurt so much that we get scared and stay in fear to try and prevent it from ever happening again. But I guarantee you, that fear you live with to protect yourself, spread out over your life time, is more debilitating than the painful events that happen. You look like a corpse amidst these papers. You use them to numb you from pain. But they also numbed you from feeling fully alive. I think it would be worthwhile having you alive again. Would you like to let this go?"
There were tears in her eyes. There was also some light. I could see the heaviness drop off. There was relief in her breath. She said, "Yes".