Archive for July, 2009

Have you ever felt like, if you forgive someone, you are condoning what they did? Being able to forgive is one of the biggest challenges we face…and one of our biggest barriers to experiencing joy.

I choose how I feel or react, so my anger at the other person is my own feeling and interpretation. That doesn’t mean I need to forget what happened or allow myself to be harmed by that person in the same way again!

Try this for a week: Each day identify someone that you feel harmed you or someone you love. Ask yourself in what way you have been able to use that interaction as a teacher – what did you learn that has been helpful, or how did it push you in a new, exciting direction.

What do we need to do to be harmless? For me, it means taking responsibility for angry or demeaning thoughts about others instead of taking my feelings out on them, either verbally or in my thoughts. This doesn’t mean that I’m “bad” to have such thoughts, just that I need to deal with them energetically rather than let them harm others.

Here’s what I do if I am really angry with someone else: I set up a white light “shower” between myself and the world. Then I get into feeling as angry or frustrated as I wish, while recognizing that the feelings are about me, not the other person. When all that angry energy passes through the white light shower, it comes out “pink” (benign) on the other side.

What about you? What do you do to make sure you don’t harm others when you are angry or frustrated?