{"id":27785,"date":"2021-03-06T10:24:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T14:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=27785"},"modified":"2021-03-06T21:32:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T01:32:59","slug":"practice-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/practice-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Practice Forgiveness and Free Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you struggle with letting go of resentment or carrying around guilt? Do you want to learn how you can practice forgiveness<\/a> and break free of the prison that is anger?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you decide to practice forgiveness and let negative feelings melt away, you are on the path to freedom. Forgiving someone is not letting them off the hook\u2014it\u2019s letting yourself off the hook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading to learn how you can practice forgiveness in your every day life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How to Practice Forgiveness<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you hold onto resentment, you give away your power. It\u2019s like \u201ctaking poison and waiting for your enemies to die.\u201d When you carry around guilt and resentment, your Ego<\/a> is in charge. It holds onto the past, keeps you a prisoner to your pain, and lowers your frequency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when you decide to practice forgiveness and let negative feelings melt away, you are on the path to freedom. Your higher self<\/a> is in charge and you own your power, banishing the anger, resentment and hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you have an issue with someone you love, explain how you feel, but don\u2019t blame. Practice forgiveness regardless of the outcome. When you have an issue with someone you don\u2019t<\/em> care about, just free yourself and let it go, regardless of whether or not they understand how wrong they are. Forgiving someone is not letting them off the hook \u2014 it\u2019s letting yourself off the hook<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tips on Learning to Forgive<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How do you actually let go of the negative feelings and practice forgiveness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compassion<\/strong>. The only way to truly heal after someone does something awful to you is to find compassion for them (or yourself, if that\u2019s who you need to forgive). One technique is to imagine the person who wronged you as a child. Think of them acting out of fear, or trying to protect themselves and deal with their own suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understand it\u2019s about you, not them<\/strong>. You have a choice in how you react and respond when you\u2019re faced with a bad situation. When you remove the other person from the situation, you can open yourself up to a more calm, pleasant reaction. Irritating situations and people are opportunities for growth, not pain<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To illustrate this concept, imagine you\u2019re on a boat and another boat bangs into yours, scratching it. If there\u2019s a texting moron driving the boat that ran into you, you might deal with it by yelling or going crazy. But if there\u2019s nobody in the boat, there’s nobody to get mad at and you can deal with the situation calmly. The same situation (scratched boat), but two different ways to react. If you have nobody to be angry at, it\u2019s hard to be angry. Instead, it opens the incident to questions. Why did this happen? How did I attract this? How can I grow from this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be happy instead of right<\/strong>. Even if the other person in a challenging situation handled things poorly, instead of holding on to anger for days, it\u2019s better to let it go. Ask yourself, what do I have to think or do right now to be happy? The answer may be, \u201cLet her think she\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look at the situation from different angles<\/strong>: When you look at a situation from another perspective and let go of your \u201cmy way or the highway\u201d tendencies, resentment dies down. Yours is not the only perspective, and your perception is limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, imagine a friend doesn\u2019t text you back. You wonder if she\u2019s angry, then you may spin out into resentment, thinking, What\u2019s her problem!? In reality there are a million reasons she didn\u2019t text back. She may have just dropped her phone in a toilet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re inquisitive about a situation, you set yourself up to forgive another person more easily because you realize it\u2019s about you, not them; you become wise to some of your less-than-enlightened qualities. You could be one question away from being happy. For example, you could ask, \u201cWhy am I freaking out over something I have no proof of?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get it out of your system<\/strong>. Beat a pillow, scream and let yourself have a total conniption. Then let it go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understand that you won\u2019t even remember this<\/strong>. Whatever you\u2019re dealing with right now will only be a blip in your memory in the future. Try to imagine a situation three years ago when you were angry and upset with someone. You may not be able to even recall the details, and you certainly won\u2019t get all worked up again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forget about it<\/strong>. After you practice forgiveness, wipe the slate clean. Don\u2019t judge the other person in the future through the lens of their past actions. Release all your expectations and give the person a blank slate. Focus on the good in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love yourself<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you struggle with letting go of resentment or carrying around guilt? Do you want to learn how you can practice forgiveness and break free of the prison that is anger? When you decide to practice forgiveness and let negative feelings melt away, you are on the path to freedom. Forgiving someone is not letting them off the hook\u2014it\u2019s letting yourself off the hook. Continue reading to learn how you can practice forgiveness in your every day life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,6],"tags":[219],"class_list":["post-27785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-self-improvement","category-spiritual","tag-you-are-a-badass","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nPractice Forgiveness and Free Yourself - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you hang on to resentment? 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