Forgiveness
”Forgiveness is one of the most beautiful experiences open to us as humans. It cleanses, heals, and strengthens bonds. We typically find forgiveness difficult to practice, though. No matter how many times we hear about its virtues, no matter how often we see its beneficial results, we still have other people – and things in ourselves – which we cannot forgive. What prevents us from putting forgiveness into practice more often?
It looks to me that our main problem is that we get stuck in trying to forgive before we accept our own feelings exactly as they are. Thinking that we should forgive, attempting forgiveness, prevents us from having the actual experience of it.
If I am angry and hurt after an interaction with my wife, I must first deal with my own feelings in the situation before I can have the experience of forgiving her. I must open up to accept my anger and hurt; I must get to the bottom of my own experience. I may need to communicate about my experience with her. Then, coming from a place of clarity, I can come naturally to a state of forgiveness. That is, by taking care of my own experience in a loving way, I can slip into the experience of forgiveness spontaneously and organically.
It looks to me that our main problem is that we get stuck in trying to forgive before we accept our own feelings exactly as they are. Thinking that we should forgive, attempting forgiveness, prevents us from having the actual experience of it.
If I am angry and hurt after an interaction with my wife, I must first deal with my own feelings in the situation before I can have the experience of forgiving her. I must open up to accept my anger and hurt; I must get to the bottom of my own experience. I may need to communicate about my experience with her. Then, coming from a place of clarity, I can come naturally to a state of forgiveness. That is, by taking care of my own experience in a loving way, I can slip into the experience of forgiveness spontaneously and organically.
Kommentarer
Trackback
