Feeling resentment or carrying a grudge toward one other person inhibits our flow of love to even our closest relationships. Put in another way, the weakest link of a chain determines the strength of the whole chain. Some people carry a grudge for many years and put tremendous energy into justifying their resentment. This kinks the flow of love and energy in a person's life.

Forgiveness is not about seeing a person's action as right. It may well be that the person acted wrongly. Forgiveness is about seeing past the action or behavior to the part of that human being which is love. Forgiveness is really a gift we give to ourselves. There is a tremendous lightness and energy that can enter our lives when we let go of the grudges and resentments we carry.

A powerful way of forgiving is to see past the adult form and behavior to the little innocent child within the person we would like to forgive. Betty was having a particularly hard time forgiving her father for certain abusive actions done to her as a child. She had fallen into blaming her father for the ways her life was not working. True, her father had acted wrongly, yet continuing to hate him was causing much unhappiness in Betty's life.

I asked her to find a picture of her father as a young child and put it in a place where she could see it often. She found a photo of him taken at age six. As she more and more studied the photo, she began to see the sadness and loneliness in his eyes. He himself was abused as a child. Betty was able to open her heart to her father as a little boy. She felt like reaching out and holding him in her arms.

A month later, as her next step, she found a photo of him at ten years old. His eyes were still full of sadness and loneliness, but now he was starting to try to hide his pain. Betty was again able to feel compassion for him as an older child. A photo of her father as a teen showed an unhappy youth trying to act tough to further cover up the pain inside.

Through studying these photos, Betty was able to feel compassion for her father's childhood. This compassion did not make her father's actions right, but Betty could now understand the pain in her father that had led him to pass the abuse to another generation. Armed with this understanding, she was able to reach out in love to the sad little boy still within her father. Through feeling compassion, Betty's heart was freed of the bitterness and hatred she had carried for most of her adult life. Her health improved, she felt years younger and found she had more love to give to her husband and children. Forgiveness of her father was a gift she had thus given to herself.

Perhaps there are similar gifts you could give yourself? Is there someone you are needing to forgive? Is there a way you are needing to let go and move on in your life? You deserve the gift of more freedom and peace in your life. You deserve to fully feel your love and not have it covered by past resentments and grudges. You deserve love!

© Shared Heart

For a powerful guided meditation on forgiveness as well as three other healing themes, "Help in Time of Need," "Knowing Your Beauty," & "Living Your Purpose," Joyce has just finished a new tape (or CD) called, Four Paths to the Heart. Call TOLL-FREE 1-800-766-0629 (locally 831-684-2299).

Joyce and Barry Vissell have been a couple since 1964. A nurse and medical doctor, their main interest since 1972 has been counseling and teaching. As a result of the world-wide interest in their previous books, The Shared Heart, Models of Love, and Risk To Be Healed, they travel internationally conducting talks and workshops on relationship, parenting and healing. They are the founders and directors of the Shared Heart Foundation, a non-profit corporation dedicated to the healing and integrity of individuals, couples and families.

Call TOLL-FREE 1-800-766-0629 (locally 831-684-2299) or write to:
The Shared Heart Foundation
P.O. Box 2140
Aptos CA 95001

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For a free newsletter from Barry and Joyce, further information on their books, tapes and training programs, or their schedule of talks and workshops.

vissell@cruzio.com

Shared Heart