Forgiveness

Hating is like swallowing a spoonful of poison each day and hoping that it will kill your enemy

This quote isn’t mine, and I can’t remember where I read it, but it makes so much sense when you really think about it. We all carry hurts inside of us. Some are big, some are small. But they all add up over time. They just sit there, in our bodies, festering, waiting a chance to morph into something else.

All they need is more food.

More bitterness, more resentment, more negative thinking. When you forgive someone, even if you only do it in your own mind, you aren’t doing it for them. You are doing it for you. For your own peace of mind. For your own health. For your own spiritual growth. You don’t even have to tell them that you’ve done it. Especially when you have already extracted yourself from a situation that was soul numbing in the first place.

In our society there are some misconceptions about closure. Closure is not something that you have to share. You can have closure for anything in your life, no matter how big, how small.

By gathering all of the bits of yourself together into one cohesive package and talking to them, really talking to them, and then listening to what they need to hear from you to be at peace, you can become peaceful.

You can get quiet in your own mind. You can get off the hamster wheel that keeps you from focusing in the daytime and keeps you up at night and rest.

It may be as simple as starting each day by looking yourself in the eye in the mirror and saying it wasn’t your fault. Followed up by I love you. I’m proud of you. You survived that. Yes, that happened to you, but it’s not happening now.

And finally, saying to yourself ……..I will live my life for today.

I will live in the now. I will be the best friend that I can be to myself. I will love and approve of myself first.

You can get to that peaceful point in an amazingly short time.

The next step is to begin anew building stronger, healthier relationships. You will be blown away by the kind of people you draw into your life when you love yourself first. People who add to your life, add to your spirit, add to your enjoyment of everything you do. People to trust, who don’t drain, who don’t take.

If you are in a situation that drains you, where you are feeling less than you know yourself to be……I urge you to walk away.

If you can’t walk away, I urge you to protect your spirit. We only get one life. There is no reason why we can’t be happy and fulfilled while living it.

Sometimes all it takes is the first small step.

That first no.

Or, conversely, that first yes that we give to ourselves.

Yes, I will love me. Yes, I’m worth loving. Forgive yourself all the small and big hurts. Love yourself. Others will love you for it. Stop taking the poison.

There are plenty of other folks out there to take it, the manufacturers won’t go out of business, so no worries about wrecking the economy.