Forgiveness is Essential in Grief

Lighten Your Load

Forgiveness is crucial on your grief journey, without it, it’s difficult to move forward. Unforgiveness is a destructive emotion so holding onto it may only make your heart feel worse. Unforgiveness carries a trunk full of heaviness that can weigh you down and delay your recovery. The burden of unforgiveness is too heavy for anyone to drag along in the grief journey. Lighten your load; open the trunk and deal with the mess of emotions inside. You may need to forgive the person who died, or is no longer in your life. You may need to forgive the person you feel is responsible for your loss and pain. You may need to forgive yourself, or even God. Maybe you need to forgive the things people have said or done that hurt your feelings or made you mad since your loss. Most people don’t intend to be insensitive, so be patient and forgive them. Whatever the case, forgiveness is huge!

Unforgiveness Hurts You

It may seem hard or even impossible at first to forgive, but your progression depends on it. You will become stagnant in your recovery the longer you deny forgiveness. When it stays too long, unforgiveness often becomes bitterness. Once that sets in, rage, malice, and depression will follow, making your heart a home for these destructive emotions. Allowing these detrimental feelings to stay will eventually make you even sadder and begin to hurt you physically. You may not want to forgive but you need to forgive. You may feel that forgiveness is not deserved or by forgiving you are somehow saying the offense is acceptable. Forgiveness is not necessarily deserved, and it never implies a transgression is tolerable. Forgiving someone is not for the benefit of that person; it is for the sake of YOU. You are the one that will suffer from unforgiveness and it is you that will benefit from the act of forgiveness. When you forgive, you release; and when you release, you progress. Is it time for you to move forward?

Release the Negative

The act of forgiveness can be a difficult task so ask for help or guidance if you need it. Talk to someone in your support system and you can even talk to God about it. He forgave you and He can help you forgive others. Talk about how you feel and whom you need to forgive. You can write a letter to the person you need to forgive but you don’t have to send it. Sometimes it just helps to write it and release your thoughts and emotions. It may also help to write about it in your journal. Forgiveness comes in time so don’t hold back the words that can get the process started. Let it all out so you can begin to let it all go. When you begin to release the heaviness of the negative, you will then feel your heart lighten allowing you to continue on your journey less burdened.