Forgive For Your Own Peace

Has it ever happened with you in your life that you committed such a grave error, where looking back, you wonder, “how could I have been so dumb?”

I have had my share of such fiascos. E.g., I once trash-talked someone without realizing that the person was right behind me. Even today, I ask myself, ” What was I thinking?”

Memories of such mistakes linger with us all our life. However, beyond a point, they don’t hurt us or haunt us. We console ourselves; whatever happened has happened, and we can’t unwind it. Emotionally we forgive ourselves and move forward.

Here’s something for all of us to consider.

We are all pretty good at forgiving ourselves and moving on. But when it comes to forgiving others for mistakes they may have committed, we struggle. Years roll by, and the anger is still intact. We hold on to grudges refusing to let go.

When you forgive, you do not forget the mistake or the pain. You develop the capacity to remember the mistake without feeling guilty or angry about it.

Just like we forgive ourselves for the mistakes we made in our past, why can’t we invoke the capacity to forgive others who may have hurt us in the past?

We are all prisoners of the grudges we hold within us. When we forgive ourselves and others, we break the shackles of the past mistakes that hold us back and discover the freedom to move on and be peaceful.

Someone wise said it beautifully- To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.