Mental Health Blog, Day 5: Forgiveness (Past)

‘When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God's light shines upon you.’

Forgive Ourselves: In order to feel at more peace, we can forgive ourselves for any wrongdoing or mistakes made. When we forgive, we can let go. Sometimes the conscience can be on overdrive and berate us for mistakes we’ve made years ago, until we put them right. Maybe an apology is in order, or doing someone a favour and helping them out, to make up for saying something mean to them in the past.

We’re all human and all make mistakes. I think during childhood and adolescence especially, when we’re still learning right from wrong and becoming better people. The key is to learn and change from these mistakes, so as not to forever repeat them. If you can make peace with your conscience, then this is another step to feeling inner freedom. The same too applies for forgiving other people. “…the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.” – Rafiki is my guru.

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

Forgive Others: Forgive the bullies, or at least let go of any pain that was internalized by their cruelty. Instead pity them for their actions, malice, and ignorance. Happy people don’t call strangers nasty names in the street, or hurl abuse from a car, they don’t bully people, they don’t attack people – therefore people that have mistreated us, are not happy. See the weakness in their actions, and know that you are behaving in a far healthier way, and take pride in that, even better, hope that they can learn how to be a better person in time. If they’re horrible their whole lives this will lead to a lot of their own suffering, and in return they may grow even meaner and possibly more criminal. Hope that they can learn to be a better person, for everyone’s sake.

‘Forgive not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.’ Holding onto resentment can cause you pain, it can be very liberating to let go of the past. Everyone’s pasts will include some bad memories and bad things that happened to them, let it go, forgive and make peace, so that you can live in freedom. If you let cruel words destroy how you feel, this is a type of slavery “…right now if somebody else is determining what should happen within you. Is this not slavery? Somebody can decide whether you're happy or unhappy, is this not slavery? Somebody can decide whether you will be a pleasant human being or an unpleasant human being, is this not slavery? What happens within you, if somebody else determines, this is the worst form of slavery, isn't it?”

Norway Quest Travel Blog, Day 5:

We got the train from Bergen to Voss where the scenery became increasingly rural, green, and beautiful. We then caught a coach with a pro-driver who navigated hairpin bends around some nice waterfalls to Gudvangen (home of the Viking village which sadly we didn’t have time to visit). Then we caught a fjord cruise to Flam, with some incredible views reminiscent of Jurassic Park. I decided to scatter some of James’ ashes here from the boat, as it was so nice with the sunlight too. We then boarded the ‘Flam railway’ to Myrdal, which stopped mid-journey by a huge majestic waterfall, where a pagan-esque lady standing right by the crashing water sang ethereal music to us, which was a nice surprise. We then finished up in Myrdal where we caught the return train back to Bergen. All in all, an amazing day.