Hello and welcome,
And today's word for living your best life is forgiveness.
Have you ever held on to anger or resentment for something that happened in the past?
So many of us have.
And it's important to remember that when we talk about forgiveness,
We're not looking at condoning a wrongdoing.
We're looking at freeing ourselves from the emotional burden of pain and bitterness and possibly even regret.
Imagine just for a moment how much lighter your life would feel if you could let go of grudges and chose to embrace emotional peace.
Forgiveness is one of the most powerful acts of self-liberation.
It really allows us to heal,
To grow,
And to move forward with an open heart.
And studies show that people who practice forgiveness experience lower stress levels,
Better health,
And improved relationships,
But it takes an empowered mindset to get through some of the things that we really need to forgive in our life.
And some of us have had very difficult childhoods or very difficult episodes where we have really felt powerless by somebody else's behaviors.
Forgiveness is not about saying what you did was okay.
Forgiveness is about me making a decision that moving forward,
I choose to set myself free from what happened in the past.
So in my coaching practice,
I hear many traumatic stories from people on large,
Small scales.
It's all,
Of course,
Perception,
But I hear many very challenging events.
And forgiveness is really a choice.
It is a decision to say,
My identity is not going to be defined by an event that happened in my past,
No matter how difficult.
I am going to take back the power.
I am going to choose how my life is going to look from this day forward.
And I am going to set myself free.
It's often,
Of course,
Much harder than we expect.
And when we look at people like Nelson Mandela,
Mahatma Gandhi,
Viktor Frankl,
Who have been through some extraordinarily challenging times,
As have many of you,
Many very normal human beings have been through difficult times,
But forgiveness is a choice.
And the choice you're making is to set yourself free from the past.
A study from Johns Hopkins University found that forgiveness lowers the risk of heart disease and reduces stress hormones.
Research from Stanford University suggests that people who practice forgiveness have lower levels of anxiety and better mental well-being.
And neuroscientists have discovered that the act of forgiveness rewires the brain's neural pathways,
Leading to reduced emotional pain and increased empathy.
So I'm going to invite you today to play with three different ideas around forgiveness.
The first one is to write a letter expressing forgiveness towards someone who has hurt you.
And I include in that the important step of not sending that letter.
It is much better to write the letter as if the person will never read it,
So that you are your absolute most honest self in how you felt,
How you feel,
And that you then have a ceremony to celebrate destroying that letter as part of a step for forgiveness.
And I say this with care,
Because if you are somebody who has experienced extreme trauma,
Please do not do this without the support of a mental health worker,
Because it could bring things up for you that are very painful and you need support for.
So please be your own boss there.
Number two,
Practice empathy by trying to see situations from another person's perspective.
And we can do this with smaller events.
We do not have to start with big events that may have happened in our life.
And number three,
Engage in mindfulness or meditation exercises,
Focusing on releasing resentment and letting go.
And the more we connect with our truth and with our soul journey,
The more we realize that events in our life are part of a storybook that are attached to this lifetime journey that we are in at this present time.
And so we're going to end on a quote today by Mahatma Gandhi,
Who said,
The weak can never forgive.
Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
