I had a dream recently that I can’t stop thinking about.
It’s nighttime, and I’m floating in a hot air balloon.
I want to climb higher, but something isn’t right. The balloon is weighed down by all these heavy sandbags.
I keep staring at the sandbags and thinking, Why are they still here? Why do they feel so heavy? I thought I ditched these already. The more I focus on them, the heavier they get.
Then, out of nowhere, I hear a voice. It’s calm but resolute:
Why don’t you stop staring at the sandbags, and start looking at the sky instead?
I pause, then lift my eyes to the stars. And as I do, something incredible happens. The balloon begins to rise. The heaviness fades, replaced by a magical lightness. I ascend effortlessly, the stars growing closer with every passing second.
Dreams are written in disappearing ink, but this one lingered. And the more I’ve thought about it, the more I see how it mirrors real life.
Whatever we pay attention to grows. If you fixate on what’s holding you back—your fears, your limitations, your problems—they begin to take up more space in your mind, like sandbags growing heavier with every glance. They expand, not because they’ve gotten bigger, but because you’ve given them the energy they need to grow.
It’s easy to get stuck in that loop. We think, If I can just solve this problem or let go of this weight, then I’ll finally be free. So, we pour all our attention into dissecting obstacles, peeling back layers of pain, and trying to release the things that hold us down.
Here’s the thing: You will never be sandbag-free. Something, somewhere, will be wrong all of the time.
Accepting this fact isn’t defeat—it’s freedom. Life isn’t about eradicating every single weight—it’s about learning to rise anyway. If you spend your entire life wrestling with the things that weigh you down, you’ll never notice the things that could lift you up.
This doesn’t mean ignoring the sandbags entirely. Healing and growth often require us to look directly at what’s holding us back. Maybe it’s processing a trauma, confronting a fear, or addressing an unhealthy pattern. Releasing those weights can be transformative.
But there’s a difference between releasing weights and becoming obsessed with them. You can’t float higher if all you see is what’s keeping you grounded.
When you allow yourself to look up—to imagine what could be instead of what is—you create lift.
When I think back to that dream, what strikes me most is how effortless it felt once I stopped focusing on the sandbags. They were still there, but they no longer defined my experience. I floated higher, not because I fought the weight, but because I chose to focus on the lift.
So maybe the real question isn’t, How do I let go of the sandbags? but rather, What am I choosing to see right now?
Because sometimes, looking up is all it takes to remember that the sky isn’t just bigger than the weight—it’s infinite.
Gravity’s grip weakens the moment you decide it doesn’t own you.
And in that shift, rising stops being a struggle and starts feeling natural.
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Bold
