forgiveness

I saw this the other day and wanted to share it. Forgiveness is something I need to do better. This excerpt from an Alex Pattakos blog on the Huffington Post really sums it up...

Forgiveness means "letting go" of our suffering. In effect, it has much more to do with our own well-being than that of the person or persons we forgive. When we hold on to our suffering -- our resentment, hurt, anger -- we are inside ourselves with self-pity. It becomes a veil through which we see ourselves and others; it becomes something we have to feed, keep alive, and justify. If we don't, we think we allow the other person or people to be "right" in their unjust treatment of us.

Back to me...

When you look at it like this, the inability to forgive is really self-abuse. By holding on to the self-pity, we become our pain. It comes to define us rather than allowing us to define it and put it aside.

The next question is how to forgive. Does it have to be a verbal expression or do conscious thought and introspection suffice?