Step 1 Open your heart Step 2 Repeat

Life is an adventure in forgiveness. Norman Cousins

Step 3 Choose one: FORGIVE or FORGET. If forget is not an option, proceed to step 4. If forget is a possibility, simply choose it and be complete.

Step 4 Say out loud, Forgiveness

doesnt make the other person right, it makes me

free. Stormie Omartian.

Repeat it 5 times.

Step 5 Close your eyes and visualize Nelson Mandela. When you have his face in your mind, read Mandelas response when he was asked why he was not resentful for his 27 year incarceration and think about the effects of resentment in your own life. He replied, Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die. If resentment is your current poison, quit picking it.

Step 6 Hold your breath. Now What we dont recognize is holding onto resentment is like holding on to your breath. Youll soon start to suffocate. Deepak Chopra some more.

Breathe.

Breathe

Breathe deep. Breathe often.

Step 7 Take advice from a doctor. Psychologist Roberto Assagioli taught that Without

forgiveness life is

governed by . . . an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation. Are you consumed by thoughts of retaliation?
Are you stuck in a cycle of hating and hurting? Regret and revenge? Are you tired of pain? Do you seek peace? Shed your resentment. When it is no longer occupying a space in your heart, there is more room for love, peace, and contentment.

no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love. Are you
Step 8 Love? Is it in you? Life coach and author Bryant H. McGill said, There is really willing to sacrifice love in order to hold a grudge?

Step 9 How much do you love? Francois de La Rochefoucauld said,

One forgives to the degree that one loves.

So, how much do you love? Is it just a little,

infinitely, or

Step 10 Take DOWN the marker. Journalist Sidney Harris pointed out -

Theres no point burying a hatchet if youre going to put a marker on the site.

And definitely do

not visit the site!

Step 11 Open your HEART a little

wider.

Step 12a Make a list of your

mistakes.

Step 12b Turn the paper over and write a list of offenses against you. Step 12c On side one; in bold marker write across the list this quote by Voltaire: We are all full

of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies.
Step 12d Turn the paper over and write Forgiveness always seems so easy when we

need it, and so hard when we need to give it.

Step 12e Now tear up the paper while reciting:

We all agree that forgiveness is a

C.S. Lewis

idea until we have to practice it.

Step 13 Ask yourself Why? not Why me? or Why did s/he do this? (as in why do I have to experience this), but ask Why did s/he do this? (as in what caused him/her to feel/act/behave/think this way). Yes, the question in of itself seems contrary to the self-preservation we so often desperately need, but when we begin to see things how others might have seen them, our ANGER and our

heartache will begin to

them.

. Look past your own pain and sorrow, and ask what it was like for

You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.
Lewis B. Smedes

Step 14 Memorize the following:

. . . and simply

stop waiting.

Step 15a

Pray
often. Pray fervently. Pray for you. Pray for them.
H. Jackson Brown

Step 15b Pray

Step 15c Never forget the three most powerful resources you always have available to you: love,

prayer, and forgiveness.

Step 16 Ask yourself, Am

I weak or am I strong? Mahatma Gandhi said:

So, are you Step 17 Repeat out loud three times: Martin Luther King, Jr. said,

weak or are you strong?

Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.

Step 18 Find the key . . .

The key is found when we

stop centering our thoughts, feelings, and emotions on our hurt

. . . and unlock the door.

and reach out in kindness, compassion, and gentleness to others.

Step 19 Remove should

have, would have, and could have from your thoughts.

Oprah said,

Step 20

Get out of the past.

Quit living there!

No longer wonder

what life would have been like if . . .

If only paralyzes our progression.

Step 21 See the possibilities.

Recognize the opportunities. Use your resources wisely.

Be happy!

long as you dont forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy a rent-free space in your mind. Simply refuse to house them any longer!
Step 22 Step 23 Choose life. Never forgive,

Kick the trespassers out!

Isabelle Holland discovered: As

never forget. Four words that spread death everywhere.

-Minister Gary Amirault

Choose life!
Step 24 Give yourself a gift. . Forgiveness is a blessing to the giver and receiver. Heal yourself, and you will heal the world. Dont you want to be healed?

Forgiveness is for you

The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.
Marianne Williamson

Allow the world to see.

Step 25 Simply keep your heart open

Now ask yourself,

How have I been blessed?