Forgiveness – A Key to Prosperingtimes

“1 Be Proactive, 2 Begin with the end in mind…” -Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of High Effective People

It sounds reasonable that at the beginning, one should conjure images of one’s desired result. If you agree that this is a reasonable step 1, allow me to propose a step 0, begin beginning by being Response-Able, i.e. being able to respond to any circumstance or stimulus while maintaining your integrity with your highest principles. This is often described as taking responsibility for you responses in the form of thoughts, words, actions and ultimately for the circumstances of your life.

This is particularly important when attempting to forgive another person or yourself. Let’s examine this idea in the context of Stephen Covey’s 1st Habit of highly successful people, “Be Proactive”. Engage your initiative, explore the stimulus-response cycle that prevails in your forgiveness issue. What is triggering old behavior patterns? Often someone will do something and you immediately get angry; when you feel the anger, what do you do next? Do you lash out verbally? Do you react violently? Do you stop to think before speaking or acting? Your ability to insert time between a stimulus and your response, mental, emotional and behavioral, indicates your capacity for being proactive, the ability to respond versus a conditioned reflex to automatically react. As you take on forgiving someone, separate the stimulus of their words or actions from the emotions you create as a result of your reaction to their actions. You can take responsibility for your feelings without condoning another’s actions. In so doing, you are acting on your right to respond in the most appropriate and empowering manner. This is an excellent place to begin your forgiveness process just by assuming that you have the ability to forgive. Affirm, “I am responsible, I can forgive”.

Affirmative ideas for a positive, low stress business environment

Meet the Challenges of Business with Spiritual Principles
Many people of faith say that at times they feel challenged while conducting business and staying in integrity with their ideals and spiritual principles. That’s a part of the human experience. By moving through such challenges we grow as humans and deepen our spirituality.

The intent of this article is to be a tool for working through situations which require forgiveness or the healing of relationships in business. You will be given several affirmative paragraphs, which are related to the 5th Affirmation for Forgiveness, “I Honor the People in My Life by Sensing their Innate Divinity”; which has been adapted for business situations. Read the paragraphs to build your willingness to forgive and create your own forgiveness affirmations to suit your individual situation.

Create Your Own Forgiveness Affirmations
Now that you have read the above affirmations, you may have experienced some resonance in your spirit, if so, rewrite the affirmation to amplify what you want to embody or see expressed in your life. If none of the affirmations strike a chord with you, pray to be clear about what is needed to address the forgiveness issue you are facing. If you are not aware of a forgiveness need in your life or business, yet your business isn’t as fulfilling as it used to be or you feel that you are “just getting by”, pray to learn who or what you need to forgive. Most often an act of forgiveness hastens the healing body, mind and business.

If this line of thought and these suggestions just leave you cold, that is all right, you may be called to another approach to experience more success and fulfillment in your business and in your life. However, if you find this approach useful, you may want to experience the power of Spirit more directly by participating in the spiritual practice of Visioning. You can learn more at http://prosperingtimes.com/visioning

Today I start my day with Love. Through love I compassionately align myself with the power of Divine Law, the process by which God manifests. Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of Unity taught that the inner spirit of the law is the spiritual way of life that Jesus lived and taught. My intention for this day is to experience the spiritual essence of Jesus’ way of living. The inner stirring of Divine Law is the mental and emotional energy that gives voice to what we call conscience, our sense of right and wrong. I use the prompting of my conscience to help me align myself with the unstoppable and uplifting power of the law today. God’s wisdom, present within me, guides my use of love and forgiveness to assess myself and others. I now forgive all the sin or mistakes I find in my thoughts and feelings about myself and other people. God guides me in this forgiveness process allowing me to intuitively know that the law can not uplift me in the absence of love. Without love the law occurs as a stern, if not cruel teacher. However, through the power of Love drawn from God within me, I repent by acknowledging my errors and asking for forgiveness. And likewise I bestow the blessing of forgiveness upon those who would otherwise remain trespassers in my mind and in my heart.

Thank You God for this day, begun in love and sustained with prayer! Today I give up my harsh thoughts and judgments of myself and others. I am experiencing a miraculous day of healing, harmony and transformation. With a forgiving heart and mind, I am aware of God’s continuing presence and activity in my life and I experience myself as a blessing to everyone and in every circumstance within my field of influence today. Thank You God for lifting me up into Your spiritual realm of transcendent Love!

I am complete!
Selah!

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. – Ephesians 1:2
… in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,” – Ephesians 1:7

Beginning with the Best Intentions

A significant part of my philosophy of life is that Love is an essential energy for the sustaining enjoyment of living. Without Love, life loses its savor and vibrancy. Let’s consider this in the context of interpersonal relationships. So much of our enjoyment of life is contingent on our ability to connect and interact with others.

When I meet someone new, my intention is to automatically think the best of the person. It does not matter what a person wears or looks like; they are beautiful in my eyes. My friends feel safe to be themselves around me because they know I think they are wonderful, just as they are. Of course this is the ideal and I am not always successful in living up to my ideals and I dare say that you will not always succeed in expressing your ideals either. When this happens we are blessed with the gift of Forgiveness, the forgiveness that is based on the energy of unconditional love.

Applying the Golden Rule of Forgiveness

Unconditional love is the Love that God is. God is Love according to scripture. Is it reasonable to believe that Love is God in action? Can you imagine the highest and purest form or expression of love, which is conveyed in the word agape, the Love of God? It is this Grace of God that we emulate when we practice the golden rule, to do to others as we would have them do to us.

I am gracious toward people because I am real enough to admit that I sometimes make mistakes. Good people make mistakes. I show grace to others the same way I would want them to show grace to me.

Sustaining Relationships

My intentions to forgive are a natural out growth of my love for people. All of us want to love and to be loved. That is why we humans tend to come together in community. It often feels as though our need for connection is “hard wired” into our electrochemical circuitry. By intending to see the best in people, I am attracted to others and they are attracted to me. When problems arise, as they do in virtually all relationships, through forgiveness, they become opportunities for us to expand our capacities to love, grow spiritually and to enrich our interactions.  Our positive attitude draws friends, customers, co-workers and even family closer to us. Eventually we will find ourselves surrounded by smiling, happy and helpful people because those around us are attracted by our positive high regard for them. The better we think of people, the more positive our interactions become.

In conclusion, join with me today and affirm, “I choose to perceive everyone as the person I want them to be: loving, caring, and trustworthy. The way I feel about my friends and family empowers them to become better people”.

by Charles W Thomas, Jr.

Who Says I Must Forgive? There are compelling reasons to let go of the past. Sacred and psychological texts are filled with reasons to do so. However, the most convincing reason is your own instinctual realization that you will feel better when you do something about your negative feelings toward yourself or someone else.

Your First Step Is to Choose: The primary obstacle is unwillingness. How willing are you to free another person from the prison of your condemnation and harsh judgment? Are you able to see a connection between your discomfort or emotional turmoil and the ill-will you bear for someone else? Your willingness to free the other person will free you at the same time. Those who understand the verse in the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:12 “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”, understand this point. Even if you can not imagine how you would do it are you willing to change? When you become willing, you then begin your journey to healing.

You Made Your Choice, What’s Next? If your spiritual path is that of a Christian, I recommend that you begin by reading Rev. Gary Inrig’s book, Forgiveness. He discusses the subject from a Christian perspective and demonstrates how seeking, practicing, and granting forgiveness, glorifies God and reveals His character. If you feel drawn to what some call universal spirituality, Colin Tipping’s book Radical Forgiveness offers spiritual exercises and processes which I have found very effective. Tipping states that one does not have to believe all of his book’s assumptions for the processes he shares to make a big difference in one’s life.

Practice, Practice, Practice: Assuming that you have made your choice to practice spiritual forgiveness, your next step is to follow through by reminding yourself of your willingness to practice every time you find yourself slipping into resentment or hostility. Connect with others who are committed to healing their past and releasing harsh judgments. Engage in conversations that encourage, harmony, reconciliation, peace and mercy. Study, pray and meditate on Love, peace and harmony. The more you do so, the more you will experience peace and love. When it is all said and done, most of the experts tend to agree that both the forgiver and the forgiven are profoundly blessed. Yet, the most compelling reason to begin this practice is that it brings more love into the world and helps to demonstrate the possibility that we humans can live and work together for our mutual benefit without destroying ourselves or the planet we share with all of God’s earthly creation.

Deep down you know that there is simply nothing you can do to change the past. No matter how many times you wish you’d done something differently, what happened in the past will always remain in the past.

Most of us want to find a way to, once and for all, be done with our regretful feelings. When we continue to fret over the past, we allow negative feelings to consume more and more of our life. Once we’ve put a stop to it, we can think positively again and our future will be brighter. What we need to do is to change our reaction to the events of past.

Getting Caught Up In The Past

It’s easy to get caught up in the past. Nobody’s perfect and, no matter how hard you try, you’ll still continue to make mistakes. It’s how you handle the mistakes, yours and another’s, that will make the true difference in your life.

If you’ve made a mistake or suffered a tragedy in the recent past, don’t allow the tragedy to replay in your head over and over. You’ll continue to relive the negative feelings as if you were continually going through the tragedy. No one deserves this! Instead, you can do one or two things, preferably both; you can actively work on correcting your mistake, or you can change the decisions you made about what happened. What happened can not be changed but how you feel about what happened can be changed. You can control your feelings.

Learn From Your Mistakes

There are lessons to be learned in every mistake you make no matter how minor it might be. The goal is to work on discovering what these lessons are.

When negative feelings surround you regarding your past, focus on the lesson learned. Maybe you would have never learned that lesson without the mistake. And now that you’ve gained this wisdom you can avoid making that mistake again in the future.

You can take everything one step further and do more with the lessons you’ve learned. Perhaps you can raise awareness by telling others about your experience. If you can help others avoid the same mistakes, you’ll be doing something great for the world. It’ll also help you feel better about the situation.

Avoid Resentment

What if you did not make a mistake? Since you can not change the facts of what happened, what can you change your thinking that will help you to feel better now? You need to do your best to avoid resentment and all negative emotions. Resentment is a poisonous emotion that can go out of control if you don’t deal with it. You’ve probably heard of people who have had a falling out with a family member and resentment keeps them apart for the better part of their lives. Think about all the good times they’ve missed because of this bitterness!

Let It Go

Depending on what you’ve gone through, there may be a mourning period associated with your situation, but you’ll eventually need to let it go.

Since you know that nothing can change the past, letting go can prove to be very liberating.

When you let it all go, you learn to forgive yourself and forgive others. Forgiveness is such an important thing to promote in your life. It allows you to grow as a person and move forward to enjoy all that life has to offer. You weren’t meant to sit around stuck in the past no matter how tragic it’s been for you.

How Negative Thinking Hurts You

When it comes down to it, sometimes you keep telling yourself you’re over it but the negative thinking keeps creeping back into your life. You need to fully realize that the only person you’re hurting is yourself.Let’s say you’ve hurt someone’s feelings. You may think about this day and night until you can’t take it anymore, and you have to seek this person out to apologize. The person might not even remember what happened, or they may just accept your apology. The point is you suffered with negative thoughts until you sought forgiveness.

There’s no need to cause yourself severe suffering because you or someone else made a mistake, instead seek peace and resolution, then move forward with your head held high!

This is an introduction to the first four of 12 Affirmations for Forgiveness, a scripturally based, spiritual approach to forgiveness. These affirmations are focused on our relationship with God, the transcendent Law of the Universe, the One Power.

The Origins of the 12 Affirmations for Forgiveness

The12 Affirmations for Forgiveness are 12 powerful affirmations drawn from the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and 2 commandments that many believe are the greatest commandments; Matthew 22:37-39, Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. The book Prosperity’s 10 Commandments by Georgiana Tree West was the inspiration for the creation of The12 Affirmations for Forgiveness; as it was for another set of 12 affirmations, “Prosperity’s 12 Affirmations”. The powerful principle that Mrs. West used so brilliantly, is that Biblical Truth is universal. It is timeless and applicable regardless of place or culture; it is applicable for collectives and individuals. The premise is that we are endowed with the ability to glean and use Truth in all aspects of our lives. Thus the 10 Commandments are an excellent foundation in any situation in which we seek freedom, and guidance for finding and living in a new ‘land’ or new state of consciousness, whether it is a new consciousness of prosperity or new consciousness of Love which enables forgiveness.

Introducing the 1st Four Affirmations

In the 10 Commandments, the first four commandments deal with our relationship with God and so it is in the 12 Affirmations for Forgiveness, the first four affirmations affirm our relation to the Lord of our Being. First we look to God as we choose how we wish to Be, what we choose to Do and what we wish to Have. Secondly we choose what we intend to ‘see’. Do we choose to see only the appearances of the world or the revelations of Spirit? Thirdly, we choose what motivates our speaking and our actions. As we affirm the 3^rd affirmation we embody a deeper understanding of the power of our words and we don’t use that power in vain or for negativity. The 4^th affirmation helps us to choose regular times during our activity to rest and surrender to God and allow God’s will and guidance to be foremost in our mind and heart, we invoke the power of Sabbath. 

Examples of the First 4 Affirmations for Forgiveness

1. I Look to God for the Power to Forgive

a. I am a Child of God; I look to God for the Love I need to Forgive.

b. I am a Child of Love; I look to my Heavenly Father for the Love I need to Forgive and courage I need to ask for forgiveness.

2. I only Allow Divinely Inspired Images of Forgiveness Into My Consciousness

a. I am made in the image and likeness of Love; I allow divinely inspired images of forgiveness to fill my mind and heart; I can see that I have the power to forgive

b. I am made in the image and likeness of Love; the activity of God within me creates images of forgiveness in my mind and in my relationships. These images become the essence of my life experiences.

3. I Speak with Forgiveness, I Speak of Forgiveness and My Words Forgive

a. My words are born in love; they advocate forgiveness and they forgive and bless; I have the ability to forgive quickly and to ask for forgiveness sincerely.

b. I am divinely guided to speak of forgiveness and with forgiveness; my speaking creates new possibilities for forgiveness. I enjoy the experience of miracles in my life enabled by forgiveness.

4. I Surrender the Details of My Forgiveness Practice to God

a. I am guided by Divinity within me, I surrender the details of my Forgiveness practice to God. I enjoy being confident in my expressions of forgiveness.

b. I am Love in expression; I trust the Wisdom of Love. Therefore I surrender the details of my forgiveness practice to the God within me, the Source of my wisdom of love. I am able to allow love to flow in any situation with anyone.

I encourage you to use the above examples as a starting point for your experiment with these four affirmations for forgiveness; craft new affirmations that you find personally empowering. The key is to spend time with these ideas and to make them your own. These 4 affirmations, affirm Love which is the essence our relationship with the Source of All Being – God. How can you internalize these first 4 affirmations and make them a part of your habitual thinking?

Relationships – Teachers from the Past
You know, it’s perfectly normal to feel upset or sad after a breakup. You may even spend time licking emotional wounds. However, getting stuck in the memories of failed relationships is an unhealthy way to live your life. Ask yourself what is the positive lesson I learned from this relationship. What could I have done differently? In what way did I contribute to the breakup? After asking these or similar questions, wait for answers, write them down and focus on how you will approach future relationships armed with the wisdom of your answers.
If you felt deeply hurt during the breakup, spend some time writing out a list of the positive qualities of the other person. Can you see that those same positive qualities are within you? If not you would not be able to recognize them in someone else. Feel your feelings and look for the ways you either grew in the relationship or how you have grown since the end of the relationship. If you don’t feel that you have grown at all, imagine a future in which you recognize the positive lesson you learned from the relationship. Each romantic relationship, has something valuable you can take from it. Allow yourself to learn the lessons that the relationship teaches and then give yourself permission to move on.

Affirm, “I release memories that allowed belief in helplessness and hopelessness.” Jeanie Marshall – The Daily Affirm

The Past – Friend or Foe
Your past has an impact on experiences of the present and future. Are you being fearful, angry or withdrawn? The experiences you are having now are influenced by your past, not created by it. Your power to create your future is focused in this present moment. Your best use of the past is to learn from it.
Keeping your focus on your past can negatively affect what you put in your future if you fail to realize that you are not defined by your past. You can stop repeating the pain, disappointment and failures of your past when you shift your focus from your past to the present moment. Remember Marilyn Ferguson’s words to help you shift your focus to the present, “Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future.”

Resentment and Other Unforgiving Attitudes Block Energy
It seems obvious that chronic, negative emotions will tend to produce negative experiences and conditions. However, we often don’t recognize the toxicity of our negative attitudes because they feel normal. This may certainly be true regarding the economy, especially if we are facing financial challenges or we are fearful about our financial future. All of us are affected by the economy but not everyone has responded to it the same way.

Steven Covey’s 1st Habit of Highly Effective People is to Be Proactive.
This habit is founded on the principle that we have the power to choose our responses to outer stimuli. It appears that we don’t have a choice when we are being driven by conditioned responses. However once we choose to forgive, we begin the elimination of our conditioned responses.

The Free Flow of Energy Shows Up as Prosperity in Many Forms
Exercising choice empowers our ability to forgive and allows us to consciously direct our creative energy. When we don’t forgive, most of our vital energy is used in holding on to resentments, animosity and other emotions associated with unforgiving attitudes. Think of trying to keep a large beach ball underwater indefinitely. You would always be resisting the beach ball’s natural tendency to rise to the surface. It is just as tiring to suppress the guilt, shame, animosity, resentment and alienation of un-forgiveness. Our goal is to release this energy through forgiveness and use it to create the experiences we want.

“When you can forgive both another and yourself… you move from the law of karma (action and reaction) in to the law of grace (resolution) – that effulgent state that transmutes and heals.” – Brugh Joy