Aww, Forget It!
by Leslie Sann
We have to forgive, to overlook, to forget. Because if we don’t we are tying rocks to our feet, too much for our wings to carry. ~C, JoyBell C
Life without forgiveness quite frankly is miserable. I’ve written on this Power Tool in the past. If you missed the last article you may enjoy reading it. I received lots of positive feedback on its value. Today I want to talk about the other part of forgiving which is FORGETTING.
We’ve been told to forgive and forget. We forgive the judgments we hold against ourselves or other people regarding behavior and circumstances that we find upsetting. Upsetting in that they didn’t go the way we judge they ‘should’ have. That should word again. [You know in my school should is a bad word and I would love it if when you notice it running around in your mind or coming out of your mouth you hear me lovingly tell you to go wash your mouth out and come back with a mouth full of coulds.]
Once we truly forgive, which means we notice an upward shift of energy, our heart is open, and there is an inner peace, we are to forget. We don’t forget the learning we gained from the experience. We take that with us. Wisdom comes from making sense of our wounds.
What we forget is the hurt, the disturbance, our opinion about what occurred. We stop dragging the past along everywhere we go.
How can you forget? I learned a way that is very powerful, so put on your seat belts and here we go.
- Bring to mind a person, situation or circumstances that has your hackles up.
- Do your inner forgiveness work until you have freed yourself.
- Next, fill yourself up with your own loving kindness … remember, forgive is about being FOR the action of GIVING … and what we give is loving kindness.
- Fill yourself up until you are overflowing and then extend the goodness of your loving to the other (especially if you don’t want to).
- Imagine your loving as white light and fill them up with light until they disappear. Voila. They exist no more. Not because you destroyed them with your hatred, resentment and vindictiveness, but you dissolved whatever it was, hmm, I seem to have forgotten, into nothingness.
- Take a breath and notice the expansive feeling of freedom.
- Come present to the now.
- If for some reason, that pesky mind decides to recreate the disturbance, go through the whole process again until you create new neural pathways that are habituated to sending loving kindness to disturbance.
How cool is that?
Freedom and the Art of Forgiving and Forgetting.
Now go out and be powerful in the world by loving it all!
Blessings,
Leslie