Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a personal decision we have to make in the quietness of our heart. At times our spirit gifts us with the inspiration to forgive and release energy blocks with each other and ourselves. These cause our heart to shut off which creates glitches and separation in our relationships.

Many people feel separation and lack of deeper connection with friends or family because, in the past, they were emotionally hurt by them. Learning to release these feelings of disharmony is a powerfully effective tool for personal peace and happiness. It’s understandable why we feel it’s appropriate to hold onto bitterness and anger because this habit has been handed down from generation to generation and passed off as normal.

However, more people are realizing that holding onto and replaying these hurt or resentful feelings blocks our heart’s care, which is important for creating coherent energetic balance in our system and with others. Bitter energy, sustained and unchecked, has been proven to release hormones and neurochemicals that drain our energy system and put our wholeness health in harm’s way, especially if a lot of charged emotion was involved.

A Favor for Ourselves

It’s common for us to feel that forgiving someone is about doing them a favor. However, we are especially doing ourselves a major favor by releasing these stored feelings of hurt and emotional pain and the negative effects they create in our mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. In some cases, forgiveness can be the difference in preventing major health setbacks or not. Through time these repressed feelings not only siphon our energy levels but also tax our resilience and reasoning capacity, along with creating shades of flatness in our joy and happiness.

Science and psychology have demonstrated the mental, emotional and physical benefits from releasing these stored feelings. Sure, some situations are harder to release, yet they cost us more to store them, even if we don’t think about them all the time.

Today there is plenty of evidence of the debilitating effects of repressing disharmonious energies. It’s understandable why forgiveness can be hard, but it’s a giant step in self-care if we go to our heart and gently start the process, even if it’s a little at the time, which is more effective in many cases.

Why the Heart is Essential

Our heart is the secret sauce for forgiveness. Good luck if you try forgiveness from the mind alone. Yet it is often approached that way. Our heart knows we are gaining something by forgiving, while the mind can resist forgiveness because it feels like it’s giving up something owed. It’s the heart that adds the love, understanding and patience to stick with the intention. Just know that forgiveness wouldn’t have increased in popularity in the last ten years if there wasn’t something significantly beneficial that comes with it.

Our spirit provides energetic encouragement and wholeness healing as we genuinely commit our heart’s intention to release the old, even if it’s a little at a time. More people are reporting nowadays that they are being intuitively nudged to review their mental/emotional storage lockers and clear out old energies that are repressing the spirit of peace and happiness within them. Forgiveness will get easier in the future as we realize it’s not just about doing a good deed; it’s a highly intelligent move in the game of life if happiness is our goal.

(The technique below can help with general forgiveness, but complex forgiveness issues may require more involved information from various other sources.)

Cut-Thru^® Technique

The following Cut-Thru^® technique was designed to help create objectivity which is often necessary to experience forgiveness. When our mind is racing and our emotions are on fire, it is hard to imagine experiencing forgiveness, whether it is forgiving ourselves or others

The easiest way to begin using the Cut-Thru steps as a forgiveness tool is to practice on a person or an issue as you read the steps. First, pick a minor issue to start with, not one that’s highly charged emotionally, which often is more resistant to change. Think of someone or something that you want to forgive and you feel that you can because of the work you have already done. This will increase your confidence and resilience for taking on highly charged situations you wish to forgive or be forgiven. Remember to keep your attention and energy focused in the heart throughout the steps to stay coherent.

Step 1. Become aware of your feelings regarding the person, challenge or issue you wish to forgive. (Don’t dwell here long. Get a sense of your feelings and continue with the steps.)

Step 2. Focus your attention in the area of the heart. Imagine breathing ease or appreciation slowly and casually through your heart or chest area. (This will help calm your mind and emotions.)

Step 3. Assume objectivity about the feeling or issue, as if you were considering it from a neutral observer’s perspective. (You may wish to consider the other person’s point of view. Consider what led up to the situation you want to forgive or be forgiven for.)

Step 4. Rest in neutral in your objective, mature heart. Soak and ease any perplexing feelings in the compassion of the heart. This can help dissolve the significance a little at a time. (Learning to dissolve significance is important because the significance we create adds more challenge than the issue itself – in many cases.)

Step 5. After dissolving as much significance as you can, sincerely ask your heart’s intuition for appropriate inner guidance or insight. Ask your heart what really matters here. This is an important part of Cut-Thru.

We are not bad for having judgmental feelings, as these challenges are part of our learning and growing in spirit and personal empowerment. Yet, we are happier, healthier and more alive when these dark spots in our heart are relit with warmth and connection.

If you don’t get an insight or feel forgiveness right away, practice the technique again at another time. Know that deeper, more complex situations can require a deepening connection with your genuine heart to release. Even if it takes weeks or months, it’s worth staying with the practice. The benefits will be worth it.

For more help with forgiveness, search the internet for deeper dives into the subject or consult a health professional.

This article was taken from the " HeartMath Institute"