However, today I want to focus your attention in relation to forgiveness and how it helps us stay healthy physically and mentally if we practice it.
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Perhaps some of you have heard the story of the potato sack, it is one that I particularly have very present in my life, and I have not forgotten it since I heard it in school, some teachers use it as a dynamic with their students to get the message of forgiveness across.
If you have not heard it, just imagine, if we were carrying a sack full of potatoes on our back, and each one corresponded to each anger, or for each problem we have with people, and we do not solve them, to our grudges to others, and we must carry that weight for days, for months, for years enduring its decomposition because the more time passes, the more it hurts us.
Then, what would happen as time goes by? We may get tired of carrying it all the time, we get worn out, we may feel tied down, it may cause us discomfort, pain... something like that happens with forgiveness, the good is not for others but for us, it frees us and allows us to live life without weights, without burdens, to be free and happy.
That is why I want to start first of all by forgiving ourselves. Sometimes, we may go through certain circumstances where we may feel guilty, and we do not stop thinking about what we could or could not do to prevent it from happening, that can lead us to feel a lot of sadness, disappointment, anguish, depression and close ourselves in our thoughts and that affects us negatively.
However, we must keep in mind that we are human beings, that we can make mistakes and mistakes, we are not perfect and that in life we do not have control of many things, so we must sometimes accept things as they happen if we know that we act with the heart with the people around us, we can not be so hard on ourselves.
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In order to forgive ourselves we must be sincere, and recognize where we failed to make amends, if possible, or to improve as a person because it will help our self-esteem, physical and emotional well-being, and will give us a chance to move forward with our life and the most important thing is to live with inner peace.
It is also important to forgive other people who hurt us, I know very closely people who have hurt each other for years, and stay away despite being members of the same family because none has been able to take that first step for forgiveness, it is sad to see fractured families and perhaps without a compelling reason.
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We cannot be resentful, that makes us sick, we must reflect and be more empathetic, put ourselves for a moment in the other person's place and try to understand why he/she did it, we cannot respond in the same way, as far as possible we must look for a way to solve the problems and not simply leave them aside.
The process of forgiveness is not so simple, not all of us have the same capacity to forgive, and perhaps the road to achieve it is very long, but it is a work that we must do, especially for our health and inner peace.
There are many important points about forgiveness which would be impossible to mention in this post, there are also many studies related to this topic, in which they propose therapies to achieve it, if necessary we should seek help to not live immersed in something that happened, that does not do us good, as well as meditate or seek help from friends, family, someone you trust, the important thing is to ensure our welfare, and even more so in these times where we have learned to value more each day of life.