Forgiveness is a strong word that beholds a lot of meaning. Forgiving is one of the most difficult steps that we have to take at some point in life. Why is it so hard to forgive? Let’s think about this for a moment. When we face the dilemma of forgiving, this means that the problem already happened. The pain is already in our heart. At this moment, we ask ourselves, should I forgive? Is it really something that I can forgive? Should I really let go? All these questions are the ones that make forgiving so hard and sometimes even impossible for us to do. We turn ourselves into the almighty judges of the situation and we try to determine the best punishment for the person who hurt us.
The real problem is that while all this is happening in our head, our heart is still hurting, figuratively speaking. This can be a problem because our emotions can really affect our judgment and under these circumstances, all we have are negative emotions: sadness, maybe anger, and sometimes frustration. This combination can be a bad one because it makes us look for a rapid solution, some kind of speedy satisfaction. Sometimes our satisfaction can be just letting that person know that you are not going to forgive them. In those cases, we might think that not forgiving is the same as winning, or that if we forgive we are actually just letting that person go free without judgment.
Truth is: we are just hurting ourselves. Not forgiving can lead us to hate and that is something that can persist for life. Forgiving is not the same as forgetting, you don’t forget what happened but forgiving can lead you to a peaceful life, just think about it.