Moving Forward through Forgiveness

Forgiveness sometimes is easier said than done, it may not seem as easy as just putting one foot in front of the other, sometimes you have to seek out help, I first started hearing about forgiveness when I was in the military, when underlying emotional issues would arise that I hadn’t dealt with in my younger days, my feelings would make their way to the surface and poison my decisions based on my past experiences, I did not think I could ever forgive. I was managing my life ok but could not seem to get over a few things, Seeing Psychologists, Counsellors, Rehab, Life coaches, learning about AA and going through the steps, brought up the same things I could not deal with, well deep down I didn’t want to deal with it. I had held onto this emotional torment for a long time and it was my excuse for lots of my shitty actions. I decided to hold myself accountable and be honest with myself, so I started learning more about self-improvement and how I was going to make a change to better myself and my family. I studied in areas self-development and counselling, learning about myself. Moving forward everyone has a past, it does not have to define you or your future. I made a choice to accept and forgive. Please keep in mind that forgiving is not for others, it is for you. Forgiving is not forgetting. It is remembering without anger. It frees up the power, heals the body, mind and spirit, forgiveness opens the pathway to a new place of peace where you can grow despite what has happened to you. There are people who do not forgive because they think that they avoid freeing the other person from guilt by doing so. The person who suffers the most is the one who does not know how to forgive. By not forgiving they keep the pain inside them, turning into a sort of sharp and uncontrolled knife that can cause enormous and unpredictable emotions. Not knowing how to forgive ties you to anger and resentment, which is why you will likely end up feeding your thoughts with these negative feelings. Forgiving someone who has hurt you is not easy, so it is necessary to know how to do it so you can free yourself from the past wounds and leave behind any emotional baggage that may weigh you down. It takes a truly brave and strong person to forgive. Forgiveness has to do with oneself, with feeling good and stopping the punishment from going beyond reflection and learning. Let your positive energy come to the outside without needing to fight, without needing to put up a hard conflict. Allow your attention to focus on being better, pain that causes harm is often inevitable. However, you must not give it the power to establish itself in your life because then it will not want to leave. The only person who can control your feelings is you. If you are constantly reliving the pain of what happened, you will be giving the power over to it. Do not hold on to negative feelings or anger will stop you from being the person you want to be. Anger is just an external sign of the pain, fear, guilt, or frustration that you feel when you focus on the bad times that happened. While the pain will never go away completely, forgiveness can help you free yourself from anger so that you can feel better. The past cannot be changed, but the way that it affects you can be.