*Found these portraits with quotes quite inspiring, especially Erin's quote (third one down)
Lately, I have been reflecting a lot on the power and immediate gratification that comes once we truly and whole-heartedly forgive someone or, better yet, ourselves. One of my friend's mother is a wonderfully spiritual lady with a heart of gold and a passion for homeopathic and natural healing both for physcial and mental imbalances and/or problems. I think that learning to forgive was one of the most powerful and life changing peices of advice that I learned from her. Forgiving is not an easy task and it is certainly plausible to merely think that you have forgiven somebody, just because you felt that you should, though perhaps you were not ready to do so yet.
I learned that, along with the power of forgiving certain family members, I was able to love to accept them for they were and thus, have a better undrstanding of them and better relationship with them as a result of this. For example, my mother was never an affectionate, doting type, and throuhgout my childhood and teenhood I misinterpretted this lack of affection and physical/verbal reminders of love as her not caring about me as her daughter, which, of ocurse, created major rifts in out relationships which grew sharper and deeper throughout the course of my high school years. Once, I forgave her (I mentally just chose to do so, in the shower actually, which I felt somehow enhanced the forgving experience as I was washing myself, haha) I was able to understand that, my mother had always displayed her love for me all along. However, it was in a more obscure and concrete form. My mother is the one consistent person in which I could always rely on no matter what. You could always trust her and expect her to keep her promises and/or commitments. As a self professed advocate of "tough love," she admitted later down the line, (after vast improvements in our relationship) that due to her lack of love AND inconsistancy in family life as a child, she simply did not know how to materialize the way she felt about her own children via physical affection and/or through words. My mom works very hard now days to work on this in herself, and now even says on an almost daily basis how much she loves my sister and I, which are three words that I must have heard maybe three or four times total growing up.
Learning and really forgiving someone in your life (perhaps yourself) is most certainly one the most challenging mental processes that I can think of however, its benefits and mental clarity afterward are nonetheless euphoric. I think that sometimes buried anger and resentment, ressurrect themselves in ways that we are not always consciously aware of. For example, insecurities, jealousy, inability to trust, vague outbursts of anger, etc. Everyone can learn to forgive and deserves to experience the benefits
