Freeing up Space with Forgiveness
Getting Started with a Forgiveness Practice
Forgiveness is a powerful practice that can help free up emotional, mental, and spiritual bandwidth.
I liken the need for forgiveness practice to the unloading of a heavy backpack. Over time, little pieces of unprocessed resentment, anger, fear, get stored in the backpack. It often happens incrementally, with the impact going largely unnoticed. Only after lightening the load with practices such as this do we see how much we’ve been holding onto.
What forgiveness is and isn’t
-it’s not about condoning hurtful actions, it’s about moving on and creating freedom and abundance in spite of difficulty
-forgiveness cannot be forced, it may happen little by little as you are ready.
-forgiveness creates space in the heart so that we can respond to life in a more beautiful, intimate, way
-I have found white pine and wild rose to be a supportive of forgiveness
-it’s not about being complicit towards unhealthy behavior, forgiveness frees up energy to set clear boundaries and development discernment
Resistance & Forgiveness
There may be resistance that comes up when we try to do forgiveness practices. It’s good to be curious about how resistance might be showing up and this may help deepen the forgiveness process.
-we may feel we deserve to suffer for past mistakes
-we don’t want to forgive because we fear we might make the same mistake
Developing a practice
Give yourself space to be with a past mistake you made. This might be a financial mistake—overspending or making a careless purchase. It could be pain from a bad breakup or being unfaithful to a partner. Forgiveness may be helpful for times stayed silent when could have spoken up or betraying own needs for another.
Here’s an audio recording I made on Forgiveness Practice. You may find it useful to do this practice regularly, once a day, once a week, once a month, etc.