journal entry - unbroken

I'm reading this book called unbroken. It's basically a bunch of short stories by different disabled authors about disabled teenagers that are supposed to bring hope to the readers.  So far, it's really good. 

The first chapter was especially meaningful for me, especially at the end. Basically, main character is sick with some kind of psychiatric illness and she is very much looked down upon in her community and not many doctors will even see her so her parents drop their whole lives to take her to Persia to get treatment. They travel on camels and it's a long journey. Along the journey, she's wearing these necklaces that she was given by people in her community to heal her. However, they all represent something that makes her feel uncomfortable about her illness and herself in general. She meets a girl when they stop at a campsite who has the same illness but only wears one necklace. She says that you only need the one from the people that mean the most you and who want the best for you. So, at the end, she's riding her camel towards Persia and as she's doing it, she drops each necklace that represents something negative to the ground one by one. As she does this, she feels lighter both physically and mentally and spiritually. She only keeps the necklace from her parents. Her depression fades and she rides her camel faster in joy.  She has accepted her life as it is and is excited for the future. 

This really resonated with me because I feel like I hold on to so much of other people's opinions and negativity and judgment. Like the necklaces represented. I really need to start pulling them off one by one and dropping them in the sand. 

Since I was a kid, when I would meditate, I would imagine all the stress I was dealing with on a chalkboard and I would just picture myself like clearing it off to clear my head. I think I'm going to switch that now to this idea of dropping the necklaces into the sand. I think it represents what I need right now more than the chalkboard used to.