Photo Credit Eduard Delputte
Forgiveness is accepting that you did the best you could with what you knew at that time in that space. The human journey is a trial-and-error experience. That means that making mistakes or failing, as some refer to it, is essential for learning. How can we become better in any area of our lives without learning from our mistakes, misjudgments, misbehaviors, and missed opportunities. Without experiences of trial-and-error there is no growth. Learning from your past experiences is like a balloon that once filled with air can never go back to its original form, it has been changed and expanded. Forgiveness is making the choice to learn from your experience to become a better version of yourself. Compassion for self is accepting that you did the best you could with what you knew, who you were, and what circumstances you were in at that point in time.
Forgiveness is forgetting about the past and severing all emotional cords and limiting beliefs associated with the experience. Many people have a hard time letting go of relationships, jobs or possessions where they have invested time, money, and emotion. They fail to realize when the relationship, job or possession no longer serves them in a healthy way and is actually contributing to their unhappiness, grief, and frustration. People tend to hold on expecting or hoping the other person will change, the job will get better, or the circumstance will improve only to look up after years of holding on and find themselves in a familiar situation and feeling stuck. Forgiveness is making the decision to let go of the old so that you can make room for the new. Seeing change as an opportunity for better experiences allows us to step into the next best version of ourselves. Compassion for self means letting go in blind faith and trusting that what is to come will be better than what you left behind.