Top Six Reasons To Forgive
No one can change the past, but you do have the power to upgrade how you
feel about it, and that makes all the difference. You can take your power
back from all those painful memories, and make peace with your past.
Forgiveness heals the guilt and the hurt, and does this quietly, privately,
and thoroughly. Forgiveness does not mean that you let anyone off the hook,
it means that your present happiness is more important than your past
suffering. Forgiveness does not mean that you condone the hurtful things
done to you, it means that you reclaim your right to run your own life.

Right now those hurtful things are running your life, and how is that
working for you? The people who hurt you may have ruined your yesterdays,
but only you are in charge of your tomorrows. And if you feel guilt over
people that you have hurt, forgiving yourself will heal you and allow you to
move forward with a happier attitude and a healthier body.

So here are the top six reasons to forgive.

1 You will feel better and laugh more. Resolving all that negative spin from
your past allows you to enjoy yourself and have the daily fun you really
want. Your buttons will stop being pushed because they will be gone. You
see, guilt and hatred resolve nothing, they just sustain the negativity that
continues to stop you from reaching your personal and professional goals.
Forgiveness, on the other hand, undoes the stickiness that binds you to all
those unhappy yesterdays, and this returns your personal energy to your
present life, and you get more done. Forgiveness is excellent for improved
prosperity and success in every area of your life.

2 You will be healthier. Carrying negativity appears to cause many physical
ills. The body and the mind are the same thing. Just as ice and steam are
still basically water, your body and your mind are simply different
manifestations of your spirit. Relieve your mental stress and your body will
be happier too. Nothing relieves mental stress like forgiveness. Forgiveness
heals.

3 People will like you better.You will be a more enjoyable person to be
around, and will attract more positive people to your life. Humans are
imperfect, and we all make mistakes. One trait of positive people is that
they take life less personally, and readily forgive mistakes as they happen.
On the other hand, perfectionists are often miserable people, having
standards way too high to be reached. Would you settle for mere excellence?
Then do so, and your relations with others will improve immediately.
Perfectionists are all about judgement, whereas happy people are all about
smiles. Sure, there are fights worth fighting, but if you live is one long
series of fights with other people, the exhaustion must be terrible for you.
Forgive and life improves. It really is that simple.

4 You will stop the constant suffering. Forgive others exactly because what
happened was not your fault. Ask yourself: What was done to me? How long ago
did all that happen? Are those hurtful people still in my life? Why should I
keep suffering for what someone else did? Since it was not my fault, why am
I still paying for it? Of course you have suffered way too long and way too
much already. And those hurtful people have probably been gone from your
life for years. So let the suffering stop right now. Forgive them.

And it may be that complete, one hundred percent may not be possible for you
at first, and that is fine. Not to worry, because you can start with a small
percentage of forgiveness and work up. How about forgiving them ten percent?
Twenty? Eighty? Even five percent forgiveness is an excellent step in the
right direction. The more you forgive, the better you will feel.

5 You have punished yourself long enough. Self forgiveness stops the
overwhelming feelings of guilt that obstruct your happiness. Ask yourself:
What was my crime? How long ago did that happen? Am I still doing stuff like
that? If I had been imprisoned for it, would I be out by now? You have
likely already punished yourself way too much, and it is time to grant
yourself a full pardon. Forgive does not mean forget, it means accepting
responsibility, and moving on with your life in positive ways, having
learned your lessons. You can stop spinning over how you used to be and get
on with creating the good life you have always deserved. So forgive
yourself. Today. Right now. Since you cannot undo what you did, you must do
the next best thing, and that is to face what happened, and then let the
blame go.

6 No one needs to know. Forgiveness happens privately, between you and God,
or between you and your higher self. You do not need to call anyone up or
write any letters. Forgiveness is an internal healing, and it is all about
you. Other people will have to forgive themselves for what they did. Your
concern is you. You evolve all the time anyway, so why not evolve for the
better?

And here is how do forgiveness. As you remember past events and the people
involved, feel forgiveness flow from your heart out to them and back to
yourself. Visualize what happened and who was there, forgiving everything
and everyone involved. If you are not particularly visual, that is not a
problem at all, since you can just sense and feel what happened, and process
from there. Sensing and feeling work just as well as visualizing.

If anger arises when you think of some people, then in the privacy of your
own thoughts, confront them. Tell them how you feel about what happened, and
spend all of that anger you feel toward them. Tell them all the things you
would never say to their face, but need to express. And then forgive them.

You may need to feel forgiven by your higher power. Please know that God
forgives you the first time you ask, so only ask once. If you have to ask
twice, then it is you who is not forgiving you. Forgive yourself fully
knowing that God never needs to be asked twice.

Hypnosis allows the process to work more quickly and thoroughly, and in my
years of seeing clients, I have seen the power of forgiveness help people
get the changes they seek. My CD “The Forgiveness Pyramid” may be useful for
you, and information on that is on my website

This is an awesome story…

Oct 05, 2008

The Norwegian newspaper VG has reported a truly amazing story about a
newly-wed trying to get to Norway to be with her husband, and the stranger
who helped pay an unexpected luggage surcharge. The blog ‘Leisha’s Random
Thoughts’ has translated the story.

It was 1988, and Mary Andersen was at the Miami airport checking in for a
long flight to Norway to be with her husband when the airline representative
informed her that she wouldn’t be able to check her luggage without paying a
100 surcharge:

When it was finally Mary’s turn, she got the message that would crush her
bubbling feeling of happiness.

-You’ll have to pay a 103 dollar surcharge if you want to bring both those
suitcases to Norway , the man behind the counter said.

Mary had no money. Her new husband had travelled ahead of her to Norway ,
and she had no one else to call.

-I was completely desperate and tried to think which of my things I could
manage without. But I had already made such a careful selection of my most
prized possessions, says Mary.

As tears streamed down her face, she heard a ‘gentle and friendly voice’
behind her saying, ‘That’s okay, I’ll pay for her.’

Mary turned around to see a tall man whom she had never seen before.

-He had a gentle and kind voice that was still firm and decisive. The first
thing I thought was, Who is this man?

Although this happened 20 years ago, Mary still remembers the authority that
radiated from the man.

-He was nicely dressed, fashionably dressed with brown leather shoes, a
cotton shirt open at the throat and khaki pants, says Mary.

She was thrilled to be able to bring both her suitcases to Norway and
assured the stranger that he would get his money back. The man wrote his
name and address on a piece of paper that he gave to Mary. She thanked him
repeatedly. When she finally walked off towards the security checkpoint, he
waved goodbye to her.

Who was the man?

Barack Obama.

Twenty years later, she is thrilled that the friendly stranger at the
airport may be the next President and has voted for him already and donated
100 dollars to his campaign:

-He was my knight in shining armor, says Mary, smiling.

She paid the 103 dollars back to Obama the day after she arrived in Norway .
At that time he had just finished his job as a poorly paid community worker*
in Chicago , and had started his law studies at prestigious Harvard
university.

Mary even convinced her parents to vote for him:

In the spring of 2006 Mary’s parents had heard that Obama was considering a
run for president, but that he had still not decided. They chose to write a
letter in which they told him that he would receive their votes. At the same
time, they thanked Obama for helping their daughter 18 years earlier.

And Obama replied:

In a letter to Mary’s parents dated May 4th, 2006 and stamped ‘ United
States Senate,

Washington DC’, Barack Obama writes:

‘I want to thank you for the lovely things you wrote about me and for
reminding me

of what happened at Miami airport. I’m happy I could help back then,
and I’m delighted

to hear that your daughter is happy in Norway . Please send her my
best wishes.

Sincerely, Barack Obama , United States Senator’.

The parents sent the letter on to Mary.

Mary says that when her friends and associates talk about the
election, especially when

race relations is the heated subject, she relates the story of the k
ind man who helped out a

stranger-in-need over twenty years ago, years before he had even
thought about running for

high office.

Truly a wonderful story, and something that needs to be passed along in the
maelstorm of fear-and-smear politics we are being subjected to right now.