Dear Diary,<\/p>\n
Why should we practice forgiveness?\u00a0 People need to benefit from their actions, so how does forgiveness payout?\u00a0 Calmness is the reward for forgiveness.\u00a0 Calmness is not living in a vacuum, devoid of stimuli, but instead having the mental and emotional capacity to handle what comes our way.\u00a0 If one’s cup is filled, it can not hold anymore.\u00a0 When one fills up their cup beyond capacity, its contents spill over both the holder and the surrounding environment.\u00a0 Akin to this, when we are pushed beyond our mental and emotional limits, we spill ourselves into our environment.\u00a0 We run a considerable risk of damaging ourselves and the essential things in our surroundings.<\/p>\n
I wrote previously on what forgiveness is and how we can understand when we achieve it, but forgiveness is one of the things wherein the reward is the action.\u00a0 Forgiveness is a gateway to growth because we have an opportunity to learn from every situation we encounter in life.\u00a0 We have the opportunity to refresh our motivations,\u00a0 learn from our mistakes, and ensure our goals are aligned with our inner selves.\u00a0 For many people, admitting error or fault is astonishingly complex.\u00a0 When one’s identity is anchored to an idea or concept, finding fault within it is difficult due to the immediate secondary understanding we were wrong.\u00a0 Many people have planted their flag in the sand and will not be swayed by reality.\u00a0 They must constantly fight to maintain their position.<\/p>\n
True calmness is accepting life as it is and having the flexibility to adapt to constant change.\u00a0 So long as we live, the world around us will change.\u00a0 At times, these changes can be subtle and slow;\u00a0 Sometimes, change comes abruptly and immediately.\u00a0\u00a0 Calmness is the result of preparation, not as the result of efforts to stop living.\u00a0 We prepare ourselves through actions like mindfulness and forgiveness.\u00a0 We focus on what we can control and make the most of what is possible, rather than having life pass us by focusing on the past or other impossibilities.<\/p>\n
Calmness comes from being at peace with our actions.\u00a0 When we make decisions aligned with our nature and follow through on them at a pace reasonable for us, we walk through life’s paths enjoying the present.\u00a0 When we try to force something,\u00a0 impose our will where it doesn’t belong, we set ourselves up for conflict.\u00a0 In the USA,\u00a0 conflict is the lens through which we view life.\u00a0\u00a0 We declare ‘war’ on everything,\u00a0 have endless TV shows focused solely on the conflict between people,\u00a0 and view our history through one conflict after another.\u00a0 The concept of ‘winning’ is ingrained into the culture; thus, the idea of accepting life is hard to learn.<\/p>\n
Forgiveness is a primary mechanism for freeing up mental and emotional space to channel elsewhere.\u00a0\u00a0 Forgiveness gives us the tools we need to work on what is vital in the here and now.\u00a0 There is no being at peace with ourselves and our actions when forgiveness has not been achieved.\u00a0\u00a0 Trying to forget or practice escapism will not grant us solace for anything beyond a shallow moment.\u00a0 When we practice avoidance rather than forgiveness, we are sacrificing our future selves for our present selves.\u00a0 We are attempting to create a false peace now, knowing it will be broken again later.<\/p>\n
Calmness does not spring from awaiting future burdens; it swells from being ready to handle what life hands us.\u00a0 We can only be ready if our hands are not already full.\u00a0 We can only put things down completely through forgiveness and allowing them to stay where we put them – in the past.\u00a0 The joy and lightness we feel from being unburdened can then be harnessed for positive proactivity.\u00a0 We build things when we can and endure the rest, understanding the pain will pass.\u00a0 In time, we make ourselves a home where we can heal, rest, and embrace the day with an innocent heart and an open mind.\u00a0 Through calmness, we can make each today worth living, knowing things are OK; we made them OK through forgiveness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Diary, Why should we practice forgiveness?\u00a0 People need to benefit from their actions, so how does forgiveness payout?\u00a0 Calmness is the reward for forgiveness.\u00a0 Calmness is not living in a vacuum, devoid of stimuli, but instead having the mental and emotional capacity to handle what comes our way.\u00a0 If one’s cup is filled, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[304,337],"tags":[307,329,316],"class_list":["post-28114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-diary","category-the-mindfulness-journey","tag-307","tag-acceptance","tag-forgiveness"],"yoast_head":"\n