Loud Thinking

The key to forgiveness is to forgive from the heart — not from the mind.
– Sheri Rosenthal

Forgiveness … is the finishing of old business that allows us to experience the present,
free of contamination from the past.
– Joan Borysenko

Forgiveness is not always easy.
At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it.
And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.
– Marianne Williamson

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
… Forgive them anyway.
– Kent Keith (often attributed to Mother Teresa)

Forgiving is not a gift to someone else –
Forgiving is your gift to yourself –
a great gift – the gift of happiness.
– Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Forgive those who have injured you –
not because they deserve your forgiveness,
but because you can never be happy until you release your anger and grant forgiveness.

I Forgive Myself with Compassion –
I forgive everyone, especially myself,
for all actions and all inactions throughout my entire life.
I accept that no one else has ever been to blame for either my joy or my suffering.
The entire cause of all my joys and all my sufferings is
my own emotional response to the events of my life,
and I am committed to consistently distinguishing between my feelings
about events and the physical occurrence of those events.
I declare that everyone who has ever played any role in any of the events of my life is entirely without fault.

Why Forgive? I’m angry. They wronged me, why should I forgive them?
They lied, they cheated, why should I forgive them?

Forgiveness is not a reprieve or a gift that we give to someone else.
Forgiveness for another’s act or omission is a reprieve and gift that we give our self.
We are the one who suffers the upset and the anger when we feel that we have been wronged.
It is our own blood pressure that rises when we hold on to resentment.

Give yourself the gift of forgiving others,
not because “they” deserve it,
but because you deserve the serenity and joy that comes from releasing resentment and anger, and from embracing universal forgiveness.