Forgiveness

I recently had to forgive someone, I had to push away the pride and the temptation to hold on and think over and over again of all the things that had happened before, the temptation to immerse myself into the injustice and the anger and the pain and the frustration. Right after I had done it, I tried to sum up my feelings in words and this was the best I could come up with...

"The necessity of forgiving is one of the most energising yet peaceful things I've ever experienced. It shines the light of prosperity on the future and remains one of the largest leaps in moving forward."

I believe forgiving is very much necessary. I would hope that no one, including yourself, has ever done anything that's hurt or made you angry towards them, but I realise that is very unlikely. Because with all the pain and confusion among humanity, its very easy to hurt people, its very easy to make mistakes and to do the wrong thing, and what's horribly annoying is that its so difficult to forget the wrongs we or others do, you can never go back and change the past. The next best thing to backwards time travel though is forgiveness, and unless you want to forever hold the demons of yesterday inside you, you are going to have to use that power, the power we all possess.

Do you agree with me when I say that you feel so, so energised after letting go of a grudge and forgiving someone for something they've done to you? I felt like I had a new lease of life, all sluggish or laziness had departed and my eyes seemed to stay open more freely. It makes a lot of sense, you're removing weighty chains from yourself and allowing the negative energy and thoughts to be dropped. Not only have you shared compassion and kindness to another by forgiving them (which adds to the positive energy), but you've performed a hugely compassionate and kind act for yourself. The energy makes you feel younger and like you're starting afresh. Its beautiful.

At the same time, I think you feel an immense sense of serenity along with that new found energy.You have made peace with yourself, the other person and what's happened before. And one of the huge benefits of forgiveness is that you have decided that another person's problem will not become your problem. Forgiving them loses all ties with that negative place they were in and the negativity they tried to instill in you. The peace you feel is like one that cannot be stirred or shifted because you took the power and made the decision to go out and achieve it.

You can't talk about forgiveness without mentioning its impact on your future. When you've successfully forgiven someone to their face or even in your mind, you have created a sense of hope in the both of you. And hope is a precious thing. You feel excited and ready for what the future brings after this cleanse and all your worries ease. Essentially, you become happier because you can now move on, and one thing we humans love is progress. Its like taking a deep breath in and continuing to walk down the path you had previously been standing still on, constantly glancing back at a dark and winding road that you could never walk again. "To forgive is to move forward", so if you want to move forward in your life, move on to new and happy experiences then forgiveness will have to play a huge role.

And if you still can't bear to make that other person feel even slightly less guilty or unhappy by forgiving them then remember how vital forgiveness is to yourself. It is not all about them, you are doing it to free yourself from them and what they've done to you. Don't let what they did hurt you even further. Choose to be happy.

On another note, make sure to forgive yourself for the mistakes you've made! We can be so hard on ourselves and since you're always around yourself, its important that you are kind and loving to your human clumsiness. 

So! I'm going to ask you to do two things before clicking out of this post, 

(a) Forgive someone in your life for something they've done to you. Remember, you really need to feel it, if you just  say the words then, well, nothing's changed has it? Words mean nothing without feeling.

(b) Forgive yourself for something you've done in the past. You are only human and should not feel in any way resentful towards yourself or less of a person, for making mistakes.

Try and sum up how you feel when you've done the two tasks and embrace the feeling because its one of the best!

Love,

Rachel! =)