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Much has been written about forgiveness. Everywhere you turn people are saying you have to forgive, yet few people likely understand the process of true forgiving. For true healing, forgiveness is essential. The same holds true for the idea of compassion. Yet I have learned that going from anger straight to compassion does not bring about true forgiveness. It only creates a sense of pseudo forgiveness. Many people try to go from hurt or anger straight to compassion. It most often fails unless they fully understand the deeper process. In most cases the shortcut backfires or they have only repressed their anger. While you maintain an air of forgiveness, you may find yourself easily triggered when speaking of the original event, or you find yourself reacting emotionally when the issue is raised. I have found that the following steps bring about lasting forgiveness when implemented and practiced on a daily basis. I’ve had many things to forgive, so I’ve had practice. I’ve noticed that it is easy to fall back into a trap of non-forgiveness and resentment unless you make it a daily habit to forgive. Why forgive? You forgive so that you can stop harming yourself through resentment and begin to move into a state of happiness and gratitude. Stage 1- Admit You Are Angry!
Stage 2- Acknowledge the Loss and ConsequencesIn order to fully forgive, you need to look at the consequences of the event. By consequences, I do not mean just emotional pain. Look at the past and the present, and honestly note any changes. Were you physically injured? Were you emotionally hurt? Did you suffer financial loss? What other types of losses occurred? Was there harm to other relationships? To achieve lasting forgiveness it is important to acknowledge all the losses, otherwise forgiveness will have to be revisited. When listing the losses and consequences, try to look objectively at the incident without investing in the emotions around the losses at this time. Stage 3 - Submit to a Feeling of Vulnerability
This stage of forgiveness also requires you look at whether there was any responsibility on your part. In some cases there was none, in some cases, you may have taken action which contributed to the decision. In this case, it may be hard for you to admit that you caused part of your own suffering as it is easier to blame others than to take any responsibility. This stage requires an honest, fearless, kind and moral inventory of your own actions and behaviour. Sometimes you may not like what you find, but facing your shadow can be one of the most powerful healing experiences. See if you can find some common ground. Stage 4 – Stop Punishing
There is great wisdom in the following Buddhist teaching – “Should one person ignorantly do wrong, and another ignorantly becomes angry with him, who would be at fault? And who would be without fault?” It is far better to try to forgive, and reintegrate your friends back into community than to ostracize and alienate them through punishment. Try to practice compassion, work at developing a deeper understanding of how and why people behave. It seems that we prefer a simple explanation of things, yet you need to understand that human beings and the relationships between each other is complex. Understanding the ways of the world and the people in the world requires wisdom and self-control. Use the opportunity to forgive as a means of growth! Stage 5 – Identify Some Good in the Other Person
According to Francis Bacon, the key to forgiveness is in “not expecting the other to change, to give love, to be kind and develop the ability to see that in everyone else’s eyes and heart there is some good.” In forgiving, you try not to think of yourself as being good and the other person bad. You can find it easier to forgive if you can understand that the other person has difficulties too, or was harmed in the past. If you do not practice this step, then forgiveness will be futile because it will be done with a sense of contempt for the other person. If you cannot find good in the other person, then at least pray for them. A wonderful technique for developing your vision of good in another is to imagine a seed of goodness in their heart, and in prayer imagine that both you and God are watering it to make it grow stronger. Better yet is to image that each person already has this great flower of goodness in them already. Admit that it has been obscured from your view because of your anger, resentment and justifications. Learn to look for the good. At first, like developing any skill, it is challenging. You will become better at it with practice! Stage 6 – Develop Genuine Neutrality
Stage 7 – Stay in the Present
All of your forgiveness work can be undone, and the resentment rekindled if you begin to dwell on the event again. If you begin to rerun your mind’s movie of the harm, then you may find yourself in an angry and hurt state again. It is the nature of your mind to ruminate, and therefore you must develop self-discipline and remind yourself that you have completed forgiveness work around this issue. Thank your mind for the intrusive thought, and send it off into the far reaches of the universe! Refuse to bring the past into the present again, as it will re-trigger you back into hurt and anger. Continually rise above the injury! Practice compassion and unconditional love towards all people! sidenote: Past
life regression hypnotherapist, Dolores Cannon, stated that the BEST
way to overcome
negative karma is to forgive… not just the people who you have harmed
and/or
have harmed you, but to also forgive YOURSELF.
By doing so, you will remove the karmic debt between
yourself and the
other party.
Chat Rules: Thank you!
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Many of us will echo the
thoughts “What? I’m
not
supposed to get angry! I’ve done all this healing work!” I’ve learned
that it
is harmful to get angry but it is more harmful to be angry and not
admit it!
The way to check if you are angry is to observe your inner dialogue
about how
you are relating to yourself and others. Are you finding yourself being
negative, critical or frustrated? Do you find yourself being impatient
with
people and critical of how things are done? Are you constantly blaming
others
for your troubles, wishing that others would change? If so, then it is
likely
you are angry. Try to recognize what you are angry about. It may not be
the
little things, but something that happened months ago. Look back in
time to
what might have triggered your anger and where your expression has been
blocked. Bitterness is anger with no outlet to be heard or feeling that
you can
not change anything. It is a form of helplessness. Try to discover what
you are
bitter about. Make a list of resentments. Don’t hold back or edit your
thoughts. Being honest with yourself is the first step in healing
anger.
The
next stage in forgiveness is to open
yourself up
to change and dissonance. You cannot spread butter when it is hard and
cold. Forgiveness
does not come easily when your ideas, thoughts of revenge or justice
are
hardened. You must retreat and re-examine your approach. Just like a
pound of
butter, if you want to forgive and heal, you need to let your ideas
thaw and be
molded into a new perspective, combined with other ideas and views. You
need to
admit that to harbor anger and resentments violates the laws of
kindness and
compassion both for yourself and other people. You must realize that in
not
forgiving, you are now betraying the person at whom you are angry. This
is not
an easy step. It can be painful to realize that it is you who needs to
change,
and that it is you who has the poison of anger and resentment. It is
easy to
build up a wall of justification around your thoughts, actions and
feelings
regarding the harm done to you. In order to heal and forgive, you need
to break
through the wall and tear it down completely!
One of the common behaviours
of people is to
try to
punish those who have harmed us. Most studies have shown that
punishment rarely
teaches anything other than to resent the person doing the punishing!
Some of
the ways you may punish are by withholding companionship, giving
someone the
silent treatment, or even giving compliments but then taking it back
with an
insult. You may try to go further with legal action, or you may try to
damage
things that the other person prizes. Another method of punishment is
gossiping
about the other person. In order to truly forgive, you need to give up
the
expectation that the other person will be punished. You can ask that
the other
person make amends for their harm, but if they refuse or are unable to
make
amends, then releasing them from the idea of punishment frees you from
lingering resentment.
This
step, finding some good in the other
person is
probably the most crucial step in bringing about lasting forgiveness.
It can
also be the hardest depending on the severity of the event you are
trying to
forgive.
Hopefully in the process of
forgiveness you
will come
to resolve any negative emotions and thoughts about yourself and the
other
person or organization. To do so requires that you do not expect or
demand any
payment or restitution after forgiveness. You must assume that there is
no debt
owed to you. Mother Theresa once said “it is between God and myself, it
was
never between me and them anyway.” This must be practiced daily. It is
easy to
slip into anger and resentment if you do not cultivate a practice of
neutrality. Depending on the severity of the event, you may choose to
not have
any further contact with the person, but if you meet them by chance,
you want
to have a sense of neutrality and a sense of calmness instead of
avoidance.
“Bury the hatchet” is a
phrase you may have
heard many
times. There is wisdom to this phrase if you understand its original
meaning.
The phrase comes from 
