Share the Spiritual

Forgiveness is letting go with love. It is an act of liberation amidst our human struggles – amidst the things we came here to learn. So many of us are facing especially painful challenges right now because we are evolving towards greater love. We are being pushed through situations and relationships that are asking us to forgive and thereby release all that is not love. For only then can we rise to meet our new reality – our ascending earth.

So often, we need to forgive ourselves the most for how we’ve handled life’s difficulties. This helps us to forgive others for their human-ness as well. Compassion and self-compassion are entwined with the ability to forgive.

For myself, when I am feeling hurt by another, it helps to write down their perspective until I am truly standing in their shoes. It helps to recognize that we just see life so differently from each other. If I become aware of individual needs, fears, and motivations, I can get to a place of saying, “I understand, and I release you.”

Of course, sometimes one may never understand. But then we remember that the heart always does. My heart often reminds me of this. When I finally forgive, I remember that I planned to work through certain issues in this life, and my loved ones have enabled my growth. They have reflecting my issues back to me. They are pushing me to face what I wanted to learn. Over time, I will feel grateful for what they have taught me. What I have gained is to grow stronger with love.

Forgiveness is breaking free. It is letting go of our pain so that we can be healthy again. When we forgive someone, we release them, and this allows us to heal our own wounds, for surely we have suffered enough. When we set people free, we too become liberated. And then we learn to accept each other exactly as we are.

But, how do we forgive those who truly mistreat us? By loving ourselves too much to let their poison hurt us any longer. Forgiveness is always a gift to the self, otherwise we are holding onto toxic emotions that only harm us. When someone mistreats us, they do not love themselves. It is that simple.

Of course, forgiveness never means going back to be treated this way again. We let the other person go completely from our thoughts with love, and no longer give them our energy. We soar once again with our health and freedom restored, essential rights we had sold far too hastily.

To reach for the lantern of forgiveness can seem humanly impossible. Here we find ourselves in pain and in the dark, and it feels so much easier to resist. But, if we let go of the disease of feeling wronged, and leap towards what is being offered, the dark becomes illuminated with love. Love is what this leap of faith requires, and then we remember that love is who we are. This is who we have always been, and to forgive is to embrace ourselves again.