Clean Out Your Trash!
Hi Persuader,
Let’s continue our discussion that we began with The Fundamentals of Forgiveness article. This is an extremely powerful subject that I want to give a good amount of attention here.
You’ve heard the saying, "a person takes three steps forward and two back". How would you like to eliminate the need to take the two steps back?
Here’s the key: Focusing on something will draw more of it to you. When you focus on anger, it draws more of that to you. When you focus on being a money magnet, it draws more money to you you. So it’s not surprising that forgiveness allows us to focus on positive things in life while leaving the negative behind.
I want to talk about how we can use forgiveness to benefit ourselves in very pragmatic ways.
Where do you want to get ahead in life but find your progress blocked? This would be a perfect area to use the tool of forgiveness.
You’ve had a lot of trials and tribulations, a lot of anger and resentment and witholds where people have kept from you what they should have given you; and where you’ve witheld the understanding from yourself that you should have given yourself, and so on. The good news is…
By forgiving yourself and others, you can… clear this garbage out of your unconscious mind.
Forgiveness doesn’t have to be done in person with those whom you’ve upset or who have upset you. Please hold in your mind this thought uppermost:
Forgiveness is done to benefit ourselves, first and foremost, not somebody else.
The first step in forgiveness: you have to be sincere about it. You have to be willing to let it go. This isn’t the act of forgiving, it’s the genuine deal. And if you find that you’re not fully letting it go, then you haven’t yet fully forgiven yourself or others. This is going to really create results in your life.
For this exercise you’ll need a piece of paper and a pen…
Think about yourself first. Can you identify times when you did something to someone, or just did something that you’re not proud of? Write them down.
And how about times that you’ve wronged others? Write them down.
How about times that you were too hard on yourself? Write them down.
Write it all down – a list of all the things that you can think of. For each one, write specifically what you did and to whom.
Then write how you have carried that with you, because obviously if you remember it, you’ve carried it with you. So, how have you carried it wit you, in the form of what? Anger? Guilt?
How have you blamed youself or how have you been hard on yourself as a result? You want to basically state that you are now forgiving yourself, because when you forgive yourself first you’re going to find it easy to forgive other people.
And then take what you’ve written and turn it into a letter to yourself and read it making sure that you’ve said all you need to say.
Now, this next step is crucial to the process of forgiveness and the power of influencing yourself and others…
Once you’ve gotten your letter written and it looks really good, the final powerful step is to take it outside, where it’s safe and you have some privacy and read your letter aloud to the universe and state clearly what you’ve done and that you are forgiving yourself for it.
Release it all.
Once you’ve read it then light it on fire and burn it up. And as you do, you’re setting all of that negative energy free. You’re releasing all the anger and bitterness and resentment that you’ve held onto about yourself.
When nothing remains but ashes, give a statement of thanks and deeply appreciate yourself for freeing up the negative energy so you can strongly move ahead in your life. Dwell in the energy of freedom and marvel at how much lighter, more energetic you feel.
Once you’ve forgiven yourself, it’s time to forgive others…
Think about how others have done you wrong. Get out your pen and paper. Think about the areas in your life where you seem to not be getting results.
Can you identify times when someone did you wrong? When they really screwed you over?
How about a job. We’ve all had jobs where we’ve just been screwed. How about times when you’ve felt cheated or taken advantage of? How about times when you’ve felt unappreciated? How about times you were lied to or were told what amounted to be untruths?
Write a list of those people and for each name, write a separate letter. You may have a bunch of letters here but that’s okay. Start with the biggest offenders first. The ones that have made you the most upset in your life first.
Write out your forgiveness for them. And for each person, you’re going to write them a separate letter. What did they do to you that you have carried with you in your heart? How did you carry resentment about this issue? What negativity were you wishing to happen to them? Say it clearly.
And finally…
Now that you’ve formally and completely forgiven them on all levels for what they did to you, it’s time to go back out to your private, safe place and read all the letters. Burn them, releasing all of it. Then, spend a few moments basking in the sense of freedom and release that you experience.
Once we’ve cleaned out the trash, we have so much room for abundance and prosperity to flow directly to us. And this is what makes a solid foundation for your persuasion skills to really have an impact on your life.
Forgiveness is in itself a form of persuasion – we are persuading our unconscious to release the negativity it’s been harnessing for so long, and to grasp the positive hope and excitement for the future. Only then can we truly be free from the mental blocks that hold so many of us back from achieving the life we desire.
"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future." – Paul Boese
Without getting too personal, I would absolutely love it if you would post any results you’ve had with this exercise to the blog, whether this is something new to you or something you’ve already experienced. We will all benefit from each other’s comments.
Until Next Time,
Kenrick E. Cleveland
