Forgiveness and Release

I am continually amazed at the power of forgiveness. On all levels it can improve our lives. Because we humans tend to take things personally and get offended at every little thing. Most of what anyone else is doing is about THEM, rarely, if ever, about us. (See Don Miguel Ruiz's book The Four Agreements for the full story on this)

Some time ago, I was picking up my son from my mother's best friend, when she began to tell me the litany of grievances she & her husband held against their neighbor. This neighbor had called the police on them for parking their car in the street in front of his house, had called them the most heinous of names (crazy) and she could not sleep at night for worrying about what he might do next.

Knowing her strong Catholic faith, I said to her: "Well, you know what you have to do, right?"

Befuddled, she replied: "No, what?"

"Pray for him. Grant him forgiveness."

She looked aghast.

"And do it every night for two weeks, I continued. "And when you pray, pray for him to have every good thing that you hope for yourself. Love, good health, wealth, etc..."

Without skipping a beat, (to her credit) she proclaimed, "I'll do it!"

One day shy of the 2 week mark, I stopped by her house to pick up some pictures. She couldn't wait to tell me that, not only had the neighbor approached her to let her know, "he's all over that now," but has also offered to plant a dogwood tree for her where another had died just so that "she could enjoy looking at it."

It goes to show: when you shine your light, others can't help but to be enlightened by it. But forgiveness is not for the other person anyway. It's for YOU. When my friend released her resentments, judgments and bad feelings about her neighbor, the problems disappeared. And this can happen for any grievance you may have - old or new.

Praying for their happiness is one technique to bring about the release needed to unblock yourself. Another is the stage technique. I have recorded it in an 4 minute audio for you to listen to and follow along. It is guaranteed to help you with your stickiest forgiveness issue. (You know, that #&!* person you just don't want to forgive!) Click here to download: Forgiveness Technique