Mastering the Art of Forgiveness

Have you struggled with the concept of forgiveness when you were filled with anger and resentment towards someone who has hurt you? Have you ever believed that you did forgive only to find that you were suddenly hit with “break-through emotional pain” that seemed to come out of nowhere? If this has happened to you, you haven’t mastered the art of forgiveness.

We have all heard that “forgiveness will set us free” but are oftentimes stopped dead in our tracks in our quest to find a way to forgive on our way to recovery from our emotional pain. While it is true that forgiveness is born of love, connecting with that love can be a difficult task when we still harbor resentments, anger and feelings of being taken advantage of or victimized in some way. We say, “I am a good person, why did this happen to me?”

Divine love is a power or energy that encompasses “all that is good” and weaves a myriad of good qualities through us all. If we define and understand the word “Divine” as offering specific qualities that we can utilize such as acceptance, courage, tolerance, patience and gratitude, the path to forgiveness reveals itself.

Acceptance of a situation means not that you agree with it but that you understand you can not change it. You can only change how you allow it to affect you.

Courage is putting yourself outside of your comfort zone to experience the unknown.

Tolerance is to keep yourself open to learn or gain from what makes you uncomfortable.

Patience is to give yourself time to allow the energy of a situation to penetrate into your being and give birth to a moment of clarity that tells you what you gained from your suffering.

Gratitude for what you have learned from the pain that allowed you to grow as a person ultimately re-connects you to the Divine part of yourself--the part of yourself that is supportive, loving and kind.

Gratitude and forgiveness are two sides of the same coin and always go hand in hand. When you can truly see how a painful situation helped you to grow, you will be able to thank those who have hurt you for giving you an opportunity to re-connect with the Divine part of yourself and grow Spiritually. This, ultimately, is what will set you free, allow you to forgive and move on with your life from a perspective of comfort and peace. Let’s all strive to become masters of the art of forgiveness!