Love Yourself and Forgive

What do you think when you hear the word “forgiveness”? Do you think about a difficult situation in your life? Or maybe about a person who hurt you deeply? Sometimes we think forgiveness is for big events; however, our life is made up of daily instances, and forgiveness plays a part in them as well.

Think about it, how much more peaceful would your life be if you practiced forgiveness throughout the day?  Forgiveness is all about letting go and there are many things that happen daily that might be stealing your time, energy, and peace because you are holding on to them. These are small things; maybe even “insignificant” things in the great scheme of life.  For example, in the rush of the morning, you burn your toast, and allow that moment to set the tone for the rest of the day.  Or maybe you are driving and someone cuts in front of you and your anger ruins your commute. If we look back and analyze all the instances in which we allow certain situations to steal our joy and our peace we would find several moments that could have been better if we had let go of the negative feeling and forgave others and ourselves.   

It is difficult to practice forgiveness because it is deeply rooted within us. It relates to justice and our idea of being treated fairly. To add to the challenge, many times we think that if we forgive, we are being passive and “weak”. The truth is that there’s nothing weak about forgiving. On the contrary, it takes strength, courage and self-control.  It takes character and wisdom because it’s all about being willing to go against what we want at the present moment to be able to enjoy a better future.  It’s doing the right thing not only for others but especially for ourselves, because when we forgive we are free.

There is a difference between forgiving and allowing others to continually hurt us.  We can forgive a person who treated us wrong, but we don’t have to allow them into our lives again so they can keep hurting us.

I know forgiving is not easy; it might be one of the hardest things you do and it is usually a very slow process.  Sometimes it may feel like you take one step forward and three steps back, but each step is worth it. When we forgive we love ourselves above everything else – above our toxic emotions, above what people say or think, above negativity and hate – And as we rise above we feel lighter and happier.

By Manuelita @manuelitaotero