Resentments & Forgiveness
All of us have been hurt, betrayed, lied to or disappointed in our lives. It goes without saying. If you’re a human, you will develop resentments and grudges. The issue is not whether you should or shouldn’t have them — the question is whether you will release them.
If you hold on to your resentments, you are chained to the past. If you hold on to your grudges, your life is predictable because you will continue to be stuck in repetitive ways of thinking and behaving. And until you forgive, you will never have full access to all of who you are because forgiveness is the hallway between the past and the future. It’s imperative to practice forgiveness and the only way to do that is to move out of your head and into your heart. It’s difficult to do it alone, but all you have to do is ask for divine grace. It’s almost impossible to forgive in your mind because it really has nothing to do with your mind – it has to do with your hurt heart.
Unknowingly, your resentments define who you are and who you can be in the future because you can be only as great as the size of your heart. And if your ability to love from deep in your heart is clouded by the experiences of the past, you are in a lose-lose situation. You first lose your freedom when something penetrates your emotional body and affects you so painfully. And you lose again when you decide to hold on to the bad feelings instead of turning them into powerful fuel for the future.
- Excerpt from The 21-Day Consciousness Cleanse.
At the core of our 12 Steps is Finding Answers In The Heart (FAITH) and forgiveness is key to the process. Until we forgive others, we can never truly be forgiven. We will not know freedom and our spiritual experience will not be complete. This is a program of action, and that requires working The Steps. It doesn’t matter how sick we perceive someone else to be, if we have resentment against him or her and we haven’t admitted our part then they will continue to occupy space in our head, which blocks our freedom.
Forgiveness is the key to unlocking your greatest future. If you truly want to liberated and live a joyous and free life you have to forgive and release your resentments.