Please Forgive!

One strategy for overcoming depression is to forgive others.

 One key to overcome depression is much easier said than done: forgive. Forgive others who have hurt you. Forgive yourself for allowing others to hurt you.  Finally, forgive anything you have done that causes you to have negative feelings.

When you forgive, you release negative feelings, the cornerstone of depression. You replace them with peace and happiness.

If you find it too difficult to forgive, just remind yourself you are doing it to improve your life.

I had to forgive many people to overcome my depression. My mother for her abuse, my ex who almost killed me more than once, and others. I forgave one person each week as I cried throughout the forgiveness process.

Here is what I did:

• I hand wrote on paper what each person had done to me.

• Then I read it over to make sure I had written everything down.

• Praying and asking God to forgive them, I asked Him to remove all the bad feelings I had because of what they had done.

• After tearing up the piece of paper, I flushed it down the toilet. I watched as each piece went down the drain. Watching until each piece went down the drain was liberating.

When I was reminded of anything or anyone I had forgiven (others or myself) after this process, I countered that reminder with a positive thought. “I am having a great day today and do not need to even think about this anymore.” I had to repeat this positive thought many times before the pain that accompanied the reminders stopped, but eventually the pain did stop. When the pain stopped, my depression was no longer the problem it had been before.  I finally felt at peace, happy.

Just remember these things: Harboring resentment is poisonous and leads to depression. It does devour your soul and diminishes your self-esteem. On the other hand, peace and happiness overcome depression and improve your quality of life.

Forgiving someone who has hurt you does not mean that you will allow that person to hurt you again. Therefore, if you feel you still need to protect yourself from that person, do so by all means! Forgiveness just means letting go of the negative feelings caused by that person.

***

Just for today, try to forgive to create peace in your life and overcome depression.  You just might decide to forgive every day for the rest of your life.

 

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