In my humble opinion nothing in this world can help you, free you, or move you faster than forgiveness, the problem is forgiveness itself isn’t fast. In fact, it’s a process that takes weeks, months, years and even lifetimes. Is it worth it? Yes! Is it an ongoing process? Yes! Can you achieve it even if you can’t find it in your heart at the time? Yes! Then why do so many of us have a problem with it?
I’ll tell you why, because we’re looking for love in all the wrong places. Yes, you knew I was going to say it didn’t you. We need to look in the mirror! Yes, it’s ourselves that we find the hardest to forgive. Don’t get me wrong, most of us have skeletons in our closets from days gone by, that even the boogie-man wouldn’t want to open it. Some of us have hidden our stuff so deep in very dark places and thrown away the key.
I’ve been reading another book on forgiveness, (the forgiveness work is never done), this one has an EFT and a Course in Miracles slant to it (for you EFT & the Course fans). It’s Iyanla Vanzant’s newest book Forgiveness 21 Days to Forgive Everyone for Everything. Currently I am on Day #15 and hope to finish by the end of the week.
As most of you are aware, this isn’t my first bout with forgiveness. I studied it like no tomorrow with the Louise Hay work, then again when I went to Mentone, Alabama to study with Edwene Gaines, and of course all the Catherine Ponder books that I’ve read three times over. Somewhere in between all of the aforementioned I read a few of Colin Tipping’s books namely Getting to Heaven on a Harley. Tipping goes straight for the jugglar in his “radical” forgiveness techniques, according to Tipping there is nothing to forgive, now that’s radical. I can conceptualize his theory but it does take some work to get to that level of forgiveness.
Don’t be surprised when stuff comes up that you think you’ve already worked on and it’s done. When I got to the chapter on choices, I couldn’t stop sobbing through the whole thing, thinking I may have not made the best choice in letting my oldest daughter decide who she wanted to live with during my last divorce. Things will come up, look at them, release them, and most importantly love yourself, for you did the best you could.
Forgiveness will cure whatever ails you, whether it be your health, bank account or your relationships. According to Vanzant we attract everything to us by energetic invitation, so doing this forgiveness work is crucial to keeping our energy clear so we are attracting the highest of what God has to offer us.
Much like the quote I’ve shared with previous articles and in the Louise Hay classes “Holding unto unforgiveness is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” There are variations of this quote by different people, but any way you slice it, the bottom line is unforgiveness hurts no one but YOURSELF! I remember awhile back meditating with the Osho card deck and drawing The Outsider card, with a picture of a young child standing behind an iron gate looking out with heavy chains around the lock of the gate. The irony of it was “the gate was NOT locked” we place ourselves in self-imposed prisons.
Take a look at your life this week and ask yourself, where do you need to forgive? Be gentle on yourself, the most important part is the “willingness.” Start there, and if you want to take on an exercise with me, I intend each morning in my meditation to imagine the people on my forgiveness list and see each and everyone of them blessed with the things I would want for myself:
- good relationships
- abundant health
- prosperity
- a passionate career
- travel, vacations
- a loving home
- great friends
You get the picture, join me this week as I sincerely work on sending multitudes of blessings to those whom still push my buttons. As you wish for them everything you’d want for yourself, see them bathed in a fountain of white light pouring down from the heavens above. I will warn you, with anything in this metaphysical world, when we start to work on something the Universe sure gives us the homework. The second week into the Vanzant forgiveness book, I was having clashes with more people in a week then I’ve had all year! So be prepared, and be willing.
Here’s an article I wrote on Forgiveness for Vision magazine when I first moved to California, Vision Magazine Forgiveness
With Love & Gratitude,
Eva Starr
