Working On Forgiveness

[ladee]

@Changing4Best And with your faith, you will find a way that works for you. There, to me, is a huge difference between what fits our personal life and dogma. The fact you want to forgive, eventually, maybe that's all you need to get started. You do get to say No or not yet. If you are manipulated into forgiveness it's really not forgiveness. So take your time and figure out what is right for you. Your God will understand and help you with this.

 

[RussellSue]

My T has me working on forgiving all the people who have hurt me, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. He gave me some info. It's a three page summary called Psychologists Explain How to Truly Forgive Someone and Let Go. There are eleven steps in doing this. This info can be found at: power of positivity website

I am compiling a list of the people right now that I will need to forgive. Part of me does not want to do this, my inner child, but adult me knows I need to do this.

So this is my forgiveness journey. Have any of you done something like this with your T?

Great reading. Thanks!

I have not gone through this with my therapist but had to do a lot of forgiving in sobriety. It's not easy. There are some people that I have utterly failed to forgive.

I forgave the person who damaged me the most decades ago. I guess I was able to do that because I focused very hard on doing so. Other resentments that were less inflamed have been easier to ignore and quietly fester to this day.

 

[intothelight]

For me forgiveness was not letting them take up rent in my head any more. Total neutral, and just moving on and making my here and now the focus.

 

[Changing4Best]

The fellow who did this research, his name is Dr. Robert Enright.

I think that maybe why I feel so overwhelmed is that there's eleven steps to this process, several of which are for each person I am to forgive. Step three is to make a list of everyone who has harmed me. This list is getting LONG.

 

[RussellSue]

This list is getting LONG.

No big deal. That just means you are being honest. ?

The 12 steps in AA/NA and whatever A are pretty involved, as well. I can relate to feeling overwhelmed by having a large number of resentments for sure.

 

[Changing4Best]

This is a painting I did this mornin, a wish painting. I would much prefer to forgive all of them in one fell swoop, rather than each one individually. My T won't allow that, I'm sure, but at least I expressed myself, which is a good start.

 

[RussellSue]

That's really sweet. Who could say no to that???

 

[EmmaOwl]

This is a painting I did this mornin, a wish painting.

This is cool! My newish therapist asked if I draw and I just laughed, I've tried to do art therapy and I am always wondering what to draw.
A wish painting is a great idea!

 

[Changing4Best]

Well, I worked on forgiving my sister, and she sent me a gift for my birthday! She has not done that in years. I wonder if there's any connection...