The Daily Love on Forgiveness and Grace

If you've never read The Daily Love, you are missing out. It's a blog, a newsletter and a movement. The newsletter comes daily with links to blog posts from inspirational bloggers, quotes, and a beautifully written post from Mastin Kipp himself. Most of the same content can be found on the blog. I am constantly inspired by his journey and the way he connects with his readers. He's created a special email address for readers to send in stories and questions and sometimes he will post them. Often his posts are inspired by them. The more outlets to spread love, the law of attraction, gratitude, forgiveness, etc., the better. The Daily Love is one of the best I've seen, and I'm looking forward to it's continued growth. 

Recently Mastin discussed Forgiveness. Here's his take: 

Forgiveness A - means that we are willing to forgive whoever hurt us. This includes forgiving ourselves. This doesn't make it right what they did, but it does begin to free us from the pain and sadness cycle. We forgive them, not for them and not to let them off the hook, but to free ourselves. After a while, if we do not do this, we are actually letting them win by holding on to the pain. The best way to get back at someone who hurt you is to forgive him or her, because then you get to take your power back and they no longer hold dominion over your life.

As we step into Forgiveness A - life gets better. We are beginning to move on. It's not as bad as it used to be - the charge is less. And most people stay in Forgiveness A - which is totally fine and perfect. And if you can get here, you've made a MAJOR win.

But Forgiveness B - that is the place that is the hardest to get to, yet to the most rewarding - and the most confronting. Forgiveness B takes forgiveness to a whole new level - when you forgive from a place of Forgiveness B - this is the level of forgiveness that Jesus, Buddha and the like would do. And it's hard. Level B Forgiveness asks us not only to forgive those who hurt us, but also Love them. And see that from their point of view, they are in tremendous pain and their act against us was just a very messed up request for Love. So, we step into Loving those that hurt us. This doesn't mean they have to become out best friends; we can Love them from a distance, but if we get here - we are totally free. And we can express our forgiveness to those who have hurt us most - which will help to set them free as well. Because they are still suffering from the event, just as you are.

And when we step into Forgiveness B - we also see that what we once thought was a horrible event, we now see as Grace - and an event that shaped our lives in a way that - even though it was extremely difficult - was a part of our lives that happened to help us grow. When we see past events that hurt us as Grace - then we are totally free and nothing will ever be able to touch us again.

Wherever you are on the Forgiveness Arc - it's ok and perfect for this moment. One of the worst things we can do is try to rush this process. Forgiveness is an acceptance process and it is very personal.

Grace by definition is "Favor or goodwill". Favor by whom? Well, I'm going to say The Uni-verse. We were created by The Uni-verse to express our gifts and to collaborate with each other to help each other reach our highest expression of creative freedom. Each person has been created for a specific purpose and reason - and NO other person can fulfill this purpose other than YOU. In this way, we are all children of The Uni-verse and favored.

This is not something we have to earn. This is something that is given to us freely from a place of Love. And the cool thing about Grace is that Grace can cancel Karma. Karma is the law of cause and effect - every action creates and equal and opposite reaction. But that isn't how Grace works. There is no action that requires Grace to come forth and there is no negative effect that Grace can't stop.

The other thing that it's important to remember is that from our limited point of view, we can't always see in the moment what is best for us. So - what seems to be a total disaster can actually be Grace in action.

Sometimes our biggest problem is the greatest act of Grace. What seems like horror, terror or really bad luck is the event that we needed in order to heal our wounds, step out into our power and then use our experience, strength and hope to help other people come out of their darkness. Grace can feel like a soft feather and sometimes Grace can be a kick in the teeth (or worse). But over time and with enough practice, we can begin to see the dual nature of life playing itself out on the human plane and know that even in the worst of it, we are a Light in the world, and perhaps the purpose of all this darkness is the opportunity for us to discover our own Light.

Powerful isn't it? Here are a few tips on Forgiveness:

• Start with yourself. If you can't forgive yourself you will never properly forgive others
• Write a letter to yourself, write every horrible, shameful, thing you've ever done that you've yet to let go of. Then sit with it, and find the gratitude. Every experience is a lesson and no matter how horrible, we grow from it. Then write down your gratitudes. Finally, forgive. Write it, believe it. Once you are truly forgiven, burn the letter and send the ashes out to the Universe.
• Use the above exercise to deal with the people you need to forgive.
• Download Gabby Bernstein's "forgiveness" meditation and "cord cutting" meditation to help move forward
• Check in with yourself and make sure you are still clear. If you still need to clear out some emotions, try EFT. 
• Write your gratitudes daily. The more grateful you are, the less negative energy will come your way and the less you will have to forgive. 
• Ask the Universe to take away your anger, send out a prayer, and get a good nights sleep
• When you are ready, visualize the situation and everyone involved with LOVE. Send out white light, wrap them in it, and believe in the power of Love to heal.

Are you ready to Forgive?