The art of forgiveness
... Forgiveness is an experience of the heart, a release that creates an opening for love. It is the key to opening your heart to yourself and other people, so you can have a luscious, heartfelt relationship. Forgiving means releasing to the past what happened in the past and letting go of old hurts, resentments, and grudges. Each thing we haven't forgiven keeps our hearts closed a little more. Because when you haven't forgiven, you are dragging your history around with you into every relationship in your life. It's a heavy load-and yet you're probably accustomed to carrying it, so you might not have realized how much it weighs you down.. Not forgiving ultimately harms you because you won't be able to feel the love you have for others, and you won't be able to feel the love others have for you. Not forgiving can lead to resentment, anger, blame, guilt, and mistrust. It can keep you repeating patterns from the past, pushing away intimacy, closing yourself off to new experiences and having painful relationships. You might not have realized how many grudges you're holding against yourself from the past. In an article for Lifetime titled ‘Forgive and Feel Better’, Jeanann Pannasch wrote, “In a recent study, Charlotte Witvleit, Ph.D., a psychology professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, found that when individuals were able to forgive, they experienced greater joy, a more profound sense of control over life and less depression. If you hold on to that anger on a chronic basis, then it has power over you, eating away at your peace of mind and perhaps even your immune system. When we grant forgiveness, we release from within ourselves some form of fear, hate, anger, and guilt. We make room within us for more love to enter. Forgiveness is equally beneficial to the giver and to the receiver. But the giver has far more discretion on how forgiveness may be used in his or her life, and, that is where the power of forgiveness lies. From the above, we can see that willingness to fo...