Monday, June 10, 2013

Week 8: The Big Forgive

I wish I could share the whole chapter with you but I'll share some excerpts.  Even just holding the intention of forgiving someone has been shown to have great benefits.
"Those who forgive are those who choose to forgive. There's nothing random or unintentional about it. ...Forgiveness is not done out of weakness; it is an act of strength and courage."
"The price of unforgiveness is high and can include depression, a hot temper, anxiety, emotional pain that takes hold in the physical form (headaches, backaches, fatigue) and toxic amounts of stress. The benefits of forgiveness are many and include improved heart health, brighter energy, emotional well-being, decreased risk for disease and expanding spiritual awareness.."
"Another unfortunate thing about deeply held and suppressed anger towards someone is that it spills over and interferes with our relationships with everyone else. It can make us feel like we're always victims, and there is injustice in even the most insignificant daily incidents. ...The more we dwell on hurtful events, grudges and vengeance, the more anger will take root in our minds and hearts. Before long, negative feelings can crowd out positive ones. Until the anger and bitterness are released, they will continue to leak poison into virtually all areas of your life, and can even destroy families, careers and friendships."
"Forgiveness is something that happens inside of you. It doesn't mean you're saying what happened to cause a resentment wasn't wrong or that it didn't matter. What it means is that you're saying, "I choose to let go of this negative feeling towards the person whom I perceive has hurt me." After neutralizing the emotional charge behind the grievance by letting it go, you may very well file it away in your low-priority memory storage. It's not necessary to work on forgetting it altogether."

1. After some introspection, these are three incidences and people which I've identified I hold some resentment towards:

2. How I rate the emotional impact, on a scale of 1-10, of each of the grievances listed above is:

3. Three feelings I would enjoy if I were able to completely eliminate this resentment from my mind and heart are:

4. Three ways my health and life would improve as a result of completely forgiving the offender and letting go of this resentment are:

5. My Big Hurt story which expresses how I perceive the hurtful incident goes like this:
(In your own words, write out what you are feeling. It can be two paragraphs or several pages; it's up to you. )

6. A nonjudgmental, unconditionally supportive person I can talk through my Big Hurt story with is:
NOTE: After you complete one act of forgiveness from start to finish, please consider setting yourself free from the other two resentments on your list.

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