The good news is when you forgive, you’ll heal your life.

The bad news? You’ll never heal your life until you can forgive.

Forgiveness isn’t as hard as you think.

If you’ve been stuck and unable to forgive someone or something, you’re probably getting hung up on your painful feelings. Stuck in feeling hurt, angry, betrayed, ashamed, or guilty, etc.

Waiting for those painful feelings to go away before you can forgive is keeping you stuck in a painful cycle.

It’s like saying,

“I’m not going to make myself dinner until my hunger goes away.”

That’s because forgiveness isn’t a feeling, it’s an action.

Forgiveness is something you do, not something you wait to feel. After you make the conscious choice to forgive, your feelings will fall into line with that new thought.

Declare your intention to the Universe. (I’m using the term Universe to mean whatever higher power you subscribe to)

If it’s not easy, it can sound like this:

“I feel _______about _______, but I’m willing to forgive right now. Please take the sting out of this memory, and fill my heart with forgiveness, love, and compassion for all involved, including myself.”

Forgive, forgive again, and forgive again.

It usually doesn’t happen instantly, so you need to continually remind yourself you’ve chosen to forgive. With time, the grumbly feelings will appear less often.

Each time the pain or resentment bubbles up, gently remind yourself you’re practicing forgiveness. Don’t have any negative feelings toward yourself for feeling the pain again, just acknowledge it, and move onto forgiveness again.

Remember, your feelings change after you choose to forgive, not before. Trust that those feelings are changing over time.

Forgiveness is releasing pain.

There are a lot of things that forgiveness isn’t.

Forgiveness isn’t approval, letting someone off the hook, or giving them a pass.

Forgiveness is done so you can release your pain. Not only emotional pain, but pain in your body too.

Chronic pain always has some of its roots in the need to forgive.

Be grateful right now for the positive changes that are going to happen in your mind and body as the result of forgiveness.

Binge on forgiveness in the next few weeks.

This is the time of year we think about taking on healthier habits and setting goals.

For the next few weeks, I want you to binge on forgiveness.

Forgive every little thing that pops into your head. Like that time your bratty neighbor blew out your birthday candles, or someone cut in front of you in the checkout line.

Forgive the big things too, like your parents, your exes, and yourself.

Mentally or verbally speak words of forgiveness and release, and then go one step further:

Ask the Universe to bless the person. I don’t mean a backhanded blessing like, please help this person stop being an ass. I mean truly bless the person with kindness and good things.

You can read more about the healing power of release here.

What blesses one blesses all, and I wish you peace and healing on your forgiveness journey.

All images open source from Pixabay.com