I know that it might sound strange to think that forgiveness has something to do with loving yourself.
Sometimes, society teaches us that we need to be strong and tough, that looking weak would make us being taken advantage of and that is why many of us see asking for forgiveness or forgiving others first as a sign of weakness. I know, because I used to think that too.
It took me many years to realize that by holding on to anger and hurt – I am actually continuing to punish myself for other’s wrong-doing.
The truth is that by forgiving, you take back the power from those who hurt you, and you’re becoming whole again. You are not forgiving for the sake of others, you are forgiving for your own good and releasing the traumas that cause you to feel insecure and unworthy.
There are also studies that show that forgiveness is good for you – forgiving others can help you to build better relationships and can even reduce both mental and physical stress, in other words- it can make you healthier and happier.
As I wrote before, the journey of falling in love with you is not a quick fix, in order to love yourself, you need first of all to open up the wounds that are affecting your happiness and to get rid of the heavy baggage that weighs you down, before you can build up a better version of yourself.
And that is what we are doing by forgiving ourselves and others – we are letting go of hurts that we were holding on to. We try seeing our bad experiences as a learning experience and taking back our power from those who make us feel small and weak.
The first step to let go of your baggage is to dig in into your past and find bad memories and traumas that you had, even if you don´t think that these experiences have anything to do with your self-esteem – they actually own part of the keys to your subconscious insecurities.
Pick one of these experiences and write a letter to the person who hurt you where you forgive them and yourself for what that happened and how you reacted, try to see the good development that happened in your life after this event and to look at a difference perspective about what that happened. You don’t need to send this letter – it is made for you.
Now, when you took one rock off your shoulders – try making it a habit to look inside yourself, to find traumas or bad experiences that still affect you and forgive yourself and those who hurt you.
When you got rid of enough baggage – you can work on building the new you!
If you like this post and would like to help more people to love themselves – please share this with your friends,
Wishing you a great day with lots of lightness and forgiveness!
Moran.
