The Hardest Thing I Learned About Wellness

The hardest lesson I had to learn about wellness.

It’s easy to look at a situation from afar and think to yourself how you might respond or react. You see these horrible situations on TV or in the news and you wonder how it is  parents can forgive someone who has shot and killed their child. Or you read about how people are mistreated and somehow move past all the pain and hatred.

When I was younger I couldn’t imagine anything but getting revenge if I was ever in one of those situations. Over the course of a lifetime we all experience some kind of injustice, some kind of hate, some kind of hurt that leaves you wondering how you will hold these people accountable and how they will pay for what they have done
Then you realize days, weeks or years have passed and you are still where you are; feeling hurt and resentful. And you’ve come to realize it has taken a toll on your health and well being.

photo credit francisco gonzalez

Even if you ate right, exercised, got quality sleep, prayed, had good people in your life and love your job something was preventing you from being truly happy and fulfilled. It was this that you still held on to And you finally understood you need to forgive whomever wronged you so you can be whole again and move forward. It’s likely they have no idea what they’ve actually done to you or your loved ones.

photo credit josh boot

“Psychologists generally define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting, nor does it mean condoning or excusing offenses.”

And in the end when you truly let it go and forgave them you were set free.

True forgiveness has taken me a lifetime to understand. But I gradually reached that point where I sat down and consciously decided to forgive them; and I am better for it.

I literally wrote it down, read it out loud, and then placed it into the fire.

Forgiveness is Freedom.

Set yourself free.