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I see my life as a journey toward freedom: physical, psychological, emotional, financial and spiritual freedom. I have achieved freedom from OCD, which weighed me down for 50 years. But there are other things I must pull myself free from. One of the most difficult encumbrances holding me back is the challenge of forgiveness.
I can’t move forward until I forgive myself for all the ways I have come up short in my life. Without self-forgiveness, my spirit is stuck in the past instead of open to the present and the future. It’s as if I want to drive forward but I sent all my car’s gasoline through a time machine into the past, and now I am stuck in a vehicle without fuel.
If you do not forgive yourself, how will you feel worthy to move forward and succeed in life?
Once I achieve self-forgiveness, I will have the mental and emotional capacity to forgive others; I will not project self-hatred onto people who remind me of my shortcomings. And forgiving others is key: they are like grappling hooks stuck into you and anchoring you to the past. Think of trying to rise up in a hot air balloon while people who have done you wrong are on the ground holding onto ropes and not letting you fly.
One practical technique to forgive people, and to let go of your resentment and anger towards them, is a loving-kindness meditation, based on…
