According to A Course in Miracles, forgiveness is our only function.
Forgiveness sounds easy but can seem awfully difficult to actually do.
A great tool that has really helped me on my journey to forgiveness was one that I learned from Louise Hay.
Louise Hay shares many affirmations focused on and about forgiveness.
One of my personal favorites is when she talks about the willingness to forgive.
Sometimes we’re in a situation where the hurt, anger or upset seems too much to let go of and for whatever reason we aren’t ready to forgive. This is when willingness is a great bridge.
Willingness to forgive opens the door. We don’t have to walk through it yet, but it offers us another possibility.
Willingness allows us to expand and gives us the potential to move beyond the hurt- in our own time, when we're ready.
Willingness is an opportunity for something new to unfold.
Sometimes we can get attached to the pain. It just becomes familiar and we get ensnared in it without realizing it. Willingness offers a wedge and provides some space between us and the pain. Sometimes, that’s all we need, a little space to help us re-direct and refocus.
Willingness is a great first step in letting go of anger and upset.
Here’s the thing. The person with whom I’m upset has no idea. He can be walking around happy and carefree while I’m sitting in a place of misery - unhappy, angry and seething.
Who is really suffering? I want this other person to suffer, but the reality is that I’m the one in pain.
Forgiveness sets us free from this jail cell of negative thoughts and feelings.
The next time you find yourself face-to-face with anger about an injustice you’ve experienced and you aren’t quite ready to let it go, ask yourself. “Am I willing to forgive?” See if those five words can help open the door to a shift and enable you to begin the process of releasing yourself from the pain.