The Gift: Forgiveness

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There is no forgiveness without rage. Prison of not forgiving. 

Forgiveness is not something we do for the person who has hurt us, it's something we do for ourselves. So we are no longer victims or prisoners of the past, so we can stop carrying a burden that harbors nothing but pain. It is not about cutting someone out, it's about letting go. As long as you say you can’t forgive someone you are spending energy being against rather than being for yourself and the life you deserve. To forgive isn’t to give permission to someone to keep hurting you, it's not okay that you were harmed but it's already done. No one but you can heal the wound. 

Your life does not depend on what you get or do not get from someone else, your life is your own.

The opposite of depression is expression. What comes out of our bodies does not make us ill, what stays in there does. Forgiveness is release.

Silent rage is self-destructive. If you are not intentionally releasing it, you’re holding unto it. And that’s not gonna do you any good. Neither is vending anger, that’s when you blow your top. It might feel cathartic at the moment, but others put the bill and it can get addictive. You’re not really releasing anything, you are just perpetuating a cycle, a harmful one. The best thing to do with anger is to learn to channel it and then dissolve it.

Guilt is in the past, worry is in the future. Our freedom lies in the power to choose what we do in the present. You can’t choose what happens to you or what other say or do but you can take charge of your thinking, feeling, and behavior.

I can’t say that everything happens for a reason, that there’s purpose in injustice or suffering but I can say that pain, hardships, and suffering are the gifts that help us grow, learn and become who we are meant to be.

The opportunity to decide what kind of life you want to have. To discover the untapped potentials lying in the shadows. To reveal and reclaim who you really are. May you also choose to give up the prison and do the work to be free. Find in your suffering your own life lessons. 

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And for my one-liner takeaways:

The problem is not what people tell you, the problem is that you believe them. 

Instead of dying for your dead, you can live for them and for all your loved ones who are still here.

We are born to love, we learn to hate.

No one can take away what you put in your mind.

If you survive today, tomorrow you’ll be free.

Image courtesy of storytel application.