Forgiving Yourself |
An alternative to self-blame is self-forgiveness. When we forgive ourselves for past mistakes and misdeeds, we let go of regret—that is, of self-shaming, the opposite of self-forgiving. We hold our regrets in the spiritual container of saying yes to the inevitable limitations that are part of every human life. This yes is the positive reframing of regrets. We can relate to our limitations rather than let them decimate our self-esteem. It is precisely our resistance to our broken selves that blocks our access to the divine within us. When we feel no shame in being limited, we have embraced the virtue of humility. We are then no longer able to feel humiliated. We hear the inner critic or anyone’s judgment of us as information,........