Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Forgiveness & Letting Go



Forgiveness is a part of the spiritual foundation of our lives. We become prisoners when there is an absence of it. Resentment and guilt creep into our daily rounds. Our emotional and physical health is affected. We cannot let go of the hurt and bitterness. Memory of the offense sometimes even intensifies our negative feelings. There is little room for compassion and joy until there is some kind of resolution.

It sometimes feels that it might be easier to cut a person who might have offended us out of our lives. Ending the relationship could relieve the burden of dealing with the pain. It can remove a person from our lives who makes it toxic. The problem is that without forgiveness, this measure will not really work for us. The resentment remains. We will not be free of the past and the sense that we are victims of wrongdoing until we relieve ourselves through forgiveness.

We must become ready to stop identifying ourselves with the suffering that was inflicted upon us. We are not condoning the actions of the person who caused the distress. We are giving ourselves the gift of liberation. We accept the fact of what has happened. We allow ourselves to feel and process our emotions. The baggage of resentment is removed. We are no longer sentenced to carry it. Powerlessness and anguished agonizing (my best friend calls it anguinizing) fade away. It is only then that we can begin to forgive ourselves and the mistakes that we have made become tolerable.

Forgiveness allows us to understand that suffering comes from suffering. Our compassion for those who have hurt and offended us will give us a clear new spiritual perspective.