I recently read an article about self forgiveness and moving forward in life.
How many of us look back over our lives and feel bad about various decisions we made in the past? We all have pasts, some a little harder to forgive than others. Dwelling in the past mixed with guilt is not a healthy plan for life.
How long do you want to keep the anchor around your neck? How does it serve you? There are reasons why we make inappropriate decisions, at least it seems inappropriate at the time or even now. Were you protecting yourself? Did you have the right information? Were you scared? Mostly, did you do the best you could at the time?
It seems that we are more than willing to punish ourselves with our thoughts, but that takes an enormous amount of energy and not good for your health. How many years do you plan to carry the pain in your heart?
Some have suggested writing a letter to oneself. That can be therapeutic as long as you write it, read it once and tear it up or better yet, burn it. No longer are we speaking of guilt or sadness, we need to move forward with compassion for ourselves and a new outlook for the future. Will we make poor decisions that are not in keeping with who we are now? Maybe, but doubtful. We are older, wiser and have a better perspective on life. We have the wisdom of age and assessing situations differently. This is huge, but it is also what we might not have possessed in the past. Love yourself, move forward, forget the pain of the past and know that you are an open-hearted loving person that has no plans to do any harm. Open your own heart to a peaceful, enriched life and tread gently on this earth.