Forgiveness :)

Besides love, forgiveness is the most powerful spiritual tool we possess. We can indeed change our destiny, the world, and ourselves by choosing to forgive. When someone is hurt, that hurt, left to fester, can grow into resentment. I have seen this occur, as I’m sure most of you have as well. The resentment grows like weeds and can ravage a person, choking off all life in its path. Loving fun-filled friendships turn into sources of bitterness and hate because neither side was able to forgive.

So, what is forgiveness? Forgiveness is the gift we give ourselves. It is a conscious choice to not get caught up in resentment or thoughts of revenge against another. We energetically unbind ourselves from thoughts and feelings that attach us to the offense. By choosing to forgive, we do not minimize the responsibility of the offender or justify the wrong. Rather, we free ourselves of our own negative thoughts.

Without a doubt, humans are creatures of habit. We love to hold on to things; we are not necessarily eager to change. The people who tend to hurt us are those closest to us – our partners, friends, family members, and co-workers. We love and place a fair amount of trust in these individuals, thinking it is okay to be vulnerable with them. We trust that they would never hurt us. In a way we set ourselves up for hurt. We expect them to be a certain way and don’t like it when they are themselves and not like we expect. Many times we project our own ideals onto our friends and family – ideals they can never attain. So when things do not go as planned, and we feel hurt, betrayed, rejected, or insulted, we can find it extremely difficult to forgive.

Many of us believe that if we forgive someone who has wronged or hurt us, somehow we have given in and been defeated. We feel that if we forgive the wrongdoer, this will give the person permission to hurt us again. At the same time, by not forgiving the wrongdoer, we seem to have some sense of self-justification and power over the other person – a “You are wrong, I am right” sort of thing. We want to teach the person a lesson. However, when it comes right down to it, holding on to grudges sets us up for even more false expectations. We hope that our actions will cause the person to be sorry and not act that way again. Unfortunately, this usually doesn’t work, and even if it did, the spiritual lesson has yet to be learned. If we want a relationship or situation to change, we have to be willing to express what we want. If the person does not want to change, then we must accept that fact and move on.

Another reason we don’t forgive is because it is natural to fall into survival mode. Our egos feel instinctively better being angry with someone, because when we are angry, our egos are in control of the situation. When we stay angry with the other person, we are definitely in charge.

The three major emotional centers of the body are the lower stomach, the solar plexus, and the heart. When we don’t forgive, our grudges become lodged in one or more of these energy centers. Energy workers, my wife, and other intuitives can clearly see these energy centers and whether this energy is flowing up and through their clients bodies as it should. It is like watching water flowing. My wife Charlene can most times tune into the person’s energy flow and observe any blocks that impede that flow. If these emotional blocks remain indefinitely, they very well might manifest themselves as physical ailments or disease. I attribute my heart disease and diabetes, at least partially, to having not in my earlier life understood how to forgive and to just ‘let it go.’

So if forgiveness can have such a dramatic effect on our minds and bodies, why is it that we find it so difficult to forgive ourselves and others? It is my belief that when we die, we carry the overwhelming effect of lack of forgiveness with us and have to live with it on the Other Side, where we may become mentally obsessed with not having resolved the situation while on earth. At the same time, the person on earth can feel this lingering tug of not having been forgiven. ((♥))

Via a Facebook friend of mine 🙂