Release the Healing Power of Forgiveness

When a patient learns they have an illness or disease, they look for ways to fight back. When we are struggling with failure and the ability to succeed, we look for ways to go to battle. Before we can truly move forward we sometimes have to look back.

Forgiveness is one weapon that we have to use yet many would rather leave it behind. We are embattled with struggles of self-worth and the emotional pain of our past we are unable to fight.

In the release of the pain, resentment, anger we break the chains that bind us. These chains could be from the way your father treated you as a child. Maybe you were betrayed by a friend or family member. You might be holding on to secrets of your own that are like a heavy weight around your neck. Perhaps your own decisions or lifestyle burden you.

Only you can break these chains. It may be through your faith in God, your healing Father that you can forgive. Absolution of your own wrongs through the healing power of repentance.

It may be someone else that you must forgive. Your own anger interferes with your forgiveness of them. Or you don’t believe that you hold the power to forgive because of your own sins.

Forgiving and being forgiven are two names for the same thing. The important thing is that a discord has been resolved.  ~ C.S. Lewis 

Broken relationships between family can be the hardest to mend. Many men struggle in their marriages and relationships due to the resentment they still carry towards their fathers. Women suffer from esteem issues, eating disorders and worse due to they were abused or mistreated by the men in their past.

Spouses slowly destroy marriages due to hurt feelings or broken trust. Marriages fall apart as the pain and unforgiving past erodes at the bond that holds them together.

Benefits of Forgiveness
1. Less stress
2. Reduction of chronic pain
3. Improve relationships
4. Self-esteem
5. Decrease anxiety
6. Heal depression
7. Strengthen faith
8. Happiness
9. Live longer

Many people think forgiveness comes with a cart blanch free pass. When we forgive someone including ourselves that does not mean we forget. It also does not condone the act that caused the pain.

As we hold onto our bitterness, pain and resentment it keeps us from living our lives. We become so consumed with our past that we are unable to move forward. This causes us to remove ourselves from relationships, become angry and depressed. In fact we are the ones that suffer from the unforgiving heart rather than the person that started it all.

In finding forgiveness within ourselves, we grant ourselves permission to move forward. We are able to focus on the positive things once again and in turn bring about healing. With the new-found peace we are able to truly heal.

Ways to Release the Healing Power of Forgiveness:

• Write More – journal your thoughts, write down your hurt and pain. Release them from your mind onto paper.
• Pray Regularly – spiritual guidance and pouring yourself into the word and you will find you become more willing to forgive.
• Get Active – many times the anger and hurt we feel can be redirected for good. Join a gym, pick up a hobby, occupy your time rather than dwelling.
• Make Connections – rather than isolating yourself, try building your community through connections. You will find you are not alone and likely don’t even have it that bad.
• Point of View – forgiveness is an action of healthy healing rather than condoning. It is all about the way you see things and release the strongholds of your past.
• Your Why – Forgiveness is for you not the other person. It comes from within you and heals you. It may not lead to reconciliation or change of behavior. It is about you healing you.
• Let it Go – once you forgive move on. Dwelling on our past only hurts us.

I pray that you find this information helpful in your journey of forgiveness. I can tell you from personal experience forgiving someone else many times is easier than forgiving yourself. Before we can truly forgive we too must seek our own forgiveness.

I would love to hear your stories of how you have been able to release the healing power of forgiveness and how it has changed your life?

Join the conversation and share your thoughts below.

Blessings,
CJ