Nelson Mandela and the Science of Forgiveness

Lisa Nichols - Why You Need To Forgive Others

Terry Crews: Success, Accountability, and Toxic Masculinity

Message Of The Day!

The Healing Power Of Forgiveness

Every rose has its thorns and as in life our beautiful flowering existence may have a few nasty thorns that have grown in the form of bitterness towards people, what we perceive as experiences and sometimes just everything. Some people call it baggage or a burden to bear. In the search for peace of mind we often fall flat without answers, justice or some sort of retribution. No one understands your pain quite like you and perhaps no one thinks that you’ve been wronged at all.

"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for it to kill your enemy." - Nelson Mandela

All that is left is the loneliness of despair that will remain until we find closure. Finding closure is a challenging thing to obtain. Ultimately, it is you who will have to make the choice to close that door. Why do you get closure when you forgive the people and things you feel have wronged you in your life? Well we call grudges or bitterness baggage because we actually carry them around with us every day and every night wherever we go no matter what we do. It makes us hesitate, stutter, clutter, fear change, treat others poorly, diminishes our ability to see positivity, and dims the positive light we have inside us. Like a cancer it grows and festers into every facet of our lives. The burden wears us down until we no longer relate to the world and feel as if ever one and everything is working against us.

Is there hope? Damn right there is, and you already know that it is forgiveness, which is something you probably feel that you just can’t do. Nevertheless, this is a human dilemma that has existed for thousands of years before you were born. If you want to be unhappy and bitter for the rest of your life, do nothing. Don’t forgive. But if you want to be happy and you want to live a limitless and full life filled with positivity, productivity, and peace of mind, forgive and do it now while you have the chance. Nothing can stop you from your own happiness.

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.” - Unknown

Revenge Never Settles The Score

A movie with the word “revenge” in the title is a movie that will be highly desired to watch, but in real life, revenge can put you in the position of being the “bad” person, labeled the “psycho”, and even land you in jail.   Secretly harboring hopes of revenge and never actually getting it can also lead to bitterness, contaminating the present and future.

Don’t take it from me.  Take it from, Nelson Mandela who once said, "Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for it to kill your enemy."  There is a long and arduous mental journey that you must undertake before reaching a place of understanding Mandela’s wise words; one that he had to take and one that many human beings have had to take throughout the history of mankind. 

This advice is the short cut to its wisdom, if it is taken to heart.

If you have been wronged in some way in your life by someone or some incident and you haven’t an apology or answers as to why this happened, you might thirst for vengeance in hopes of teaching “them” or “the world” a valuable lesson.  Vengeance is a ravenous hunger with a false sense of satisfaction.  Once you have it you believe you will be happy.  

In actuality revenge is an illusion of justice.  It will turn its victims into the vile enemy they hate.  The unjust injury becomes fair.   Revenge for a vengeful deed is in order.   Their victimization is now doubled. 

The cycle of injury continues until someone finally forgives.

End the negative cycle by being the one to let go of revenge and the wasteful thoughts of revenge.  Why spend your time thinking of another person’s demise when you could be thinking about rising above your pain and struggles?  This is an important piece in finding personal happiness.

And if you are the stubborn sort, and resentment and revenge consumes you, take revenge on your victimizer by doing what it takes to make the world a better place for other victims.  Let your roar be heard by the good things you do so that there are less injustices done in the world.   Make a difference; everyone and anyone can.