“How do you forgive? How do you fall asleep at night? You just do. Allow forgiveness to happen.
Ask for it and you will receive it.” Christy Whitman
Most of us hold onto old hurts, pain, and feelings of anger and resentment. We are still living in the past because another person let us down, or maybe we let ourselves down. We have a habit of beating ourselves up for things that we did, or mistakes that we have made. We then spend the rest of our lives with this burden.
You cannot grow, heal, or evolve if you do not forgive. If there is anything you are hanging onto—anger, hurt, a negative feeling about another—then you are keeping it in your energy vibration and you are attracting more negative things into your life. Remember the boomerang and the Law of Attraction? The resentment and anger sits in your aura and acts as a magnet for more of the same.
Many times we don’t want to let go of our resentments and anger. If we forgive another or ourselves, we take it to mean that we are accepting it, and accepting it means we approve of it. This is not the case. When you forgive, it does not mean that you have to approve of something. But when you hang onto past hurts or resentments, you are carrying it into your future. The only one you are hurting is yourself. Your resentments don’t hurt another. They hurt you! Anger and resentment doesn’t hurt another person by holding on to it. It just affects you and your flow of well-being.
Even if you can’t forgive yourself, the only one you are hurting is you. You don’t have to punish yourself for your past. Take each experience as a learning experience and move forward to a brighter future.
“For Giving” is an opportunity for you to correct a learning experience. All of our life lessons are opportunities to learn, grow, and evolve. When you look at past “mistakes” in this way, you see that there are no mistakes. There are just opportunities for learning. When you forgive yourself, you are giving yourself freedom from your past.
Forgiveness Playsheet:
- What are you holding onto from your past, either with another or with yourself, that is causing you to feel resentment or anger?
- What is holding onto this past circumstance or situation doing for you? Are you ready to let go of your past?
- Repeat this affirmation three times a day: “I forgive and release myself (or person’s name). I wish me (him/her) well and I wish the pain away. I let go of it now.”
