Forgiving Yourself And Others

At least at one point in our lives, we all have been wronged by someone and felt very angry, hurt, or resentful.  This is just a natural human being reaction.  On the other hand, if we don’t deal with these hurts and try to resolve them, they could turn our actions and create a negative way of life. By ignoring past hurts, we could potentially do much more harm to ourselves than anyone else could probably do.           

Forgiving others, or even yourself, doesn’t necessarily mean that you will forget or condone what happened.  Neither does forgiving mean that you will give up the values that were violated or that you will be at fault.  Nor does it mean that you will be condemning a person or looking for justice or compensation. 

Forgiveness can be seen as forgoing the anger or revenge when the wrongdoer’s action earns it and giving the gifts of love, mercy and kindness when the wrongdoer doesn’t deserve them. If we want to release the bad things from our past, then we must be willing to forgive.  

Forgiveness is all about developing a status of “for giving”, both to ourselves and others, and justifying mistakes or insults and letting go of the related hurt, anger or resentment.  

Forgiving others and ourselves will permit us to move on with our lives and to open up our minds and hearts to different ways of seeing people, the world and ourselves.  It discharges energy that could be used for other, more useful thoughts and actions.