Forgiving isn't usually very easy for most people but it's so important in order to be well and at peace. There are two sides to forgiving of course, forgiving ourselves and forgiving others. Both can be difficult to do, sometimes it's made harder because forgiveness is often confused with condoning behaviour or saying "that's ok, it doesn't matter". This isn't the case. Forgiveness means firstly, acceptance and then letting go. It means releasing ourselves from the pain of the past, from things that we can't change or undo. It means letting go of the people that have seemingly caused us pain and suffering.
I lovingly forgive myself
We must have faith that life is on our side, trust that the Universe wants us to be safe and happy, fulfilled and healthy. All the while we're holding onto the emotions from our past, we hold those we can't forgive ever closer to us. We bind ourselves to them by cords of fear, anger and resentment. We mistakenly believe that by holding onto the feelings, it punishes them but it's just the opposite. The strong fear-based emotions are stored in our bodies, causing blocks and pain and still more fear and depression. The blocked emotions tie us to the very people we want to be rid of. By forgiving ourselves and others, we can begin to rebuild our lives, move forward and find peace of mind at last.
Forgiveness sets us free, it doesn't let people off the hook but we must understand that unless we can let go, we'll never be happy. Our beliefs and emotions draw to us that we're focusing our attention on, be it love or fear based. Although it may seem unfair, we must process our own emotions and choose a new way of looking at the past so we can move forward. By gradually releasing the stored up emotions through healing, we can find the strength we need to let love into our lives. We can take the lessons from our past and move on, we can change our beliefs to encompass more empowering attitudes towards ourselves and others as we move forward in new love-based ways.
Trust that life is taking care of the details for you, release the old emotional baggage, stop punishing yourself and others for things that cannot be changed. If amends can be made, that's great, if not, accept this, you're not healing the situation by punishing yourself and you are the only person you can truly punish even if you're mad at someone else! Work through your emotions and let them go, set yourself free... the Universe loves you and everyone unconditionally and is more concerned with helping in the now, what are we choosing to think, be, create now?
It's not easy to let go when things have happened to cause great suffering or loss. Healing such as Reiki helps us to work through it at our own pace, until, eventually we can release the past back to where it belongs and focus our attention on the here and now. The present moment is our only place of power, not the past or the future. When we tie ourselves to the past through guilt or lack of forgiveness, we cannot fully be in the here and now. This is why it's so essential that we forgive because we actually do free ourselves by doing so. We aren't saying "that's ok", we're saying "I accept you made a fear-based choice and I'm now releasing that and it's effects from my life". When we see it this way, forgiving becomes essential to our health and well-being. Forgiveness is empowering for the forgiver.
