I have blogged about forgiveness and not judging before but I wanted to add some more thoughts about this topic. When we forgive, we really let go of what was, to release all the old energy that it creates. Forgiving anyone, including yourself, is an act of STRENGTH! Yes, you heard me, STRENGTH! What I mean by this is it takes tremendous courage to let go of things that have caused pain, trauma, hurt words, feelings or even abuse. When we forgive others or self, we are releasing this trapped energy that is consuming us. This trapped energy is stored in our bodies, creating health issues, funky thoughts or acts of rage. This is the reason it is so imperative to forgive, to let this go, so it doesn’t create havoc within you! Now I have heard many people and clients tell me “oh I have forgiven years ago,” or “I worked on that already” but have you really?
Here are some telltale signs that more forgiveness needs to be done!
- Feeling Emotional– If you “really” forgave someone or yourself, then you would have NO emotions present when speaking about the pain it caused! That’s correct, you would be VOID of emotions! Why? The reason for this is that you would not have any leftover energy that produced emotions!
- Words Spoken– When you choose to speak about the situation that caused so much pain, are you using words that are not so pleasant? If you really forgave, the choice of words would be pleasant as if nothing happened.
- Avoiding the Issue– When forgiveness is giving and dealt with, then you don’t need to hide from the issue at hand. This means that you can talk about it easily and it doesn’t cause pain. There is no “Pandora’s box” any longer as the box is open and all the contents are gone!
- It’s in the Past! – Many times, people will say that was so long ago and it is in the past. The kicker here is that the issue was not dealt with, thus forgiveness didn’t take place!
- Seeing the Person Who Caused the Pain- If you meet the person that you have really forgiven, would you be able to have a conversation with this person? If you cannot say YES to this question, then you really haven’t forgiven. True forgiveness comes when, you can look this person in the eye and can speak to them easily without any emotions, words, thoughts about what had happened!
Lastly, when we really forgive another person or ourselves, we are releasing pent up energy that needs to be released. Remember true forgiveness is an act of strength! When we let go of the old energy it created, we then fill that area with love. So, I ask you, have you really forgiven?
