So many people walk around with their heads down and their hearts heavy as they go through life. Either they feel that life has been bad to them or they know that they have been hurt by someone else or by a circumstance and cannot bring themselves to let go of these negative feelings inside. I seem to bump into them often and smile at the opportunity that this presents.
To carry around a hatred or a desire to get even with someone will only hasten your own demise and cause you untold physical as well as emotional damage. Each day that passes with you harboring ill-feeling or worse towards someone only hurts you. Why? Because the other person might not even know or remember what they did that caused you to feel so much bad energy. And even worse - because you have never expressed how strongly you feel about whatever happened or about what was said, they might be having a great time in their own life completely oblivious to your own confusion, anger and grief.
In the wonderful film The Shawshank Redemption a prison inmate says to his friend that they have a choice about the way they (and therefore you and I) respond to life and the challenges it puts in front of you. He says "You either get busy living or you get busy dying."
Take a quiet moment, or a quiet day, to be clear about the benefits you are receiving by hanging onto the pain and anger of not forgiving someone their behavior against you. You might even write them a note, explaining how you feel, how you have believed yourself to have been wronged, and that you wish to move on with your life now and be free to receive more joy and pleasure.
You may be relieved to hear that you don't need to actually send them the letter or note! Besides, you probably don't even know where they live nowadays as you have been hanging on to this pain for so long. You can put just their first name on it and actually mail it, knowing it can never be delivered. Or you could set fire to it by candle and watch the letter turn to ashes on a plate, or even throw the letter in a fast flowing river and watch it be carried away. Whichever way you choose to do it, and in whatever place you go through this simple yet powerful ritual, you are making a decision to let go and to forgive.
This process of forgiveness and letting go works just as well for you where you have done things you wish you had never done and still carry around the thoughts associated with that. Let go of the pain and get on with your life.
Let it all go ...Let it go now ...Release it ...
Forgive all the people who you once thought had wronged you or harmed you in some way. Forgive those who you loved and where that love either died or turned into something less. Forgive those from whom or around whom you have felt jealousy, shame, anger, fear and pain of any kind.
Do this regardless of whether it seems logically the right thing to do. Your heart is not logical. You are not even logical yourself. Simply understand that if you are holding onto some sense of having been wronged, hurt or mislead or deceived in the past, that just your thinking about this is reducing your ability and space to experience well-being, happiness and bliss right now in this moment.
No person and no experience that is from your past should have that hold over your enjoyment and your choice to have and to create your best life in this instant. Let it go. Let it go now. Just release it all.
Be present in the moment and realize all the good that you have and all the good that you are.