I forgot to fill you in on the day 2 of forgiveness. The plan is to right down things you need to forgive, figure out what they are costing you, and to look at how I took things personally. This was actually really hard to do. I found that I felt justified in my grudges and didn't want to explore how I was internalizing these things. That's why I chose to take two days on this one. I focused the first day on what these grudges were costing me and after I understood all of the happiness, peace, and intimacy I was missing out on, I was finally ready to look out the incidents and how I took them personally. I came to realize that even when I was hurt by someone, the person's intentions were not to hurt me. Whoever hurt me was just doing what he/she thought was best for them at the time in that moment. That realization really helped me to let go of these things. Even more of a surprise was that I needed to forgive myself. I found I resented myself for being human and making mistakes. Finally I wrote a letter to God (for you it would be whatever higher power/presence you believe in) expressing my feelings and helping me to release those grudges. I pictured myself putting my problems in God's hands. To be honest, I feel lighter. Do you need to lighten your load?
Yea, I need to lighten my load. That's a difficult thing to do.
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