FORGIVENESS

Forgiveness is a noble concept, but so hard for us humans to pull off. I was recently in a yoga class, and the teacher dedicated a meditation to forgiveness, and pointed out that all of us carry such negative past experiences and sense memories around forever. So true. It’s almost like we have a soundtrack that gets pulled out whenever we feel down, and that soundtrack includes a very complete list of all grievances and injustices heaped upon us.

If only we were that thorough when it comes to new life-affirming activities!

The yoga teacher said that forgiveness always begins with ourselves, and when he said that a light bulb went off in my mind: of course, that’s right. Everything begins and ends with us, since what we carry in our minds are only ideas or thoughts representing these past horrors, and those thoughts are so, so limited and biased when you think about it.

The night after that class was interesting, too, because I was able to really release some judgments and bad feelings that I have been storing in myself….it was quite an experience. I suspect that this process needs to be repeated periodically, because old memories die hard, and sometimes creep back in the mind when we are overwhelmed, or just plain tired.

And here’s the added unexpected bonus: when I was able to completely forgive myself for all my past transgressions, any bad feelings about everyone else dissipated with them.

Take some time to forgive yourself for everything, and observe how your world shifts.