Forgiveness is, by definition, the act of forgiving another person, or being forgiven by someone else. From a psychological standpoint, to forgive another person is the act of letting go and releasing negative energy that you have pent up inside over an incident that occurred recently, or even long-ago. We may tell our children that it is always better to forgive and forget, but we may sometimes forget to live by our own words. In order to start down the path of forgiveness, here are the three things that you need to do.
Acknowledging The Pain That We Feel
The first step of the process is to come to terms with ourselves. We need to recognize that we have been wronged, and that we have experienced pain. Obviously, we know that we have experienced pain. That’s why we are not talking to this other person. We feel the negative emotion every day, and live with that negativity. Once you have set out loud that you have been hurt, and acknowledged how you really feel, the next step of the process is releasing this pain that you have identified.
Releasing Your Inner Pain
The second step of this process is releasing the pain that we feel. By venting, releasing all of this inner turmoil and emotion, you will find yourself feeling much better. Some people do this by screaming out loud, typically where no one can hear you, or by writing a letter with everything that upsets you, and then burning it or throwing it away. The act of releasing the pain that you feel allows us to distance ourselves from the incident that occurred. The final step of this process is then, from a place that is absent anger, we will want to approach this person.
Confronting The Person You Need To Forgive
The final step of the process is not receiving forgiveness, but telling the other person that you forgive them. In most cases, depending upon what actually transpired, this will work out for the better. You simply state that they hurt you, and that you forgive them for doing so. Some arrogant people will take this as an attack, but if they actually do care about you, they will process what you have said, and forgive you back. This is the only way to truly heal from things that people have done to you, things that you simply cannot change. Hopefully, after you have released all of your negativity, and forgiven by other person, at the very least, you will feel better than you did when you harbored all of that negativity.