Forgiveness

It is not always easy to forgive ourselves, as we often feel a need to carry our guilt around with us, and when we carry that guilt for many years, we tend to hold it to us almost like a security blanket. However, we do need to learn to let go of the past, to forgive ourselves and to forgive others.

Otherwise that guilt can grow and create chains and weights on and around us. I will liken it to a sapling tree that has stakes put around it to allow it to grow safely, but as the tree grows if the stakes and wires are not removed, they start to dig into the ever-growing tree, squeezing and suffocating it. The stakes need to be removed for the tree to continue to grow true and strong, otherwise the restrictions will start to affect how the tree grows.

We cannot change what has been said or done in the past, but we can change how we feel about it now, and we can chose to acknowledge it and tell ourselves that we will never do that again, and because of the way we were created, we hold onto the lesson at an unconscious level so as not to repeat that mistake again, so there is no need to hold it in the conscious mind, it has already had the impact that was meant to be learnt, so let it go now, knowing that your unconscious mind will bring it up if ever it is necessary in the future.

Forgiveness is a very personal thing, to forgive someone else may touch them no more than a butterfly’s wing, and yet when we forgive ourselves, the weight falls away and we take to wing ourselves.

Guilt is a man-made conditioning. If we did not make mistakes, we could not learn and therefore we could not grow and move forward. So accept your own mistakes, and those of other people. See them as a necessary part of life. We stumble, we fall, we grow and so do all those around us, so foster tolerance and you will naturally find a greater inner peace and a contentment with life.