Forgiveness – Episode 68
Do you have trouble forgiving the alcoholic or addict in your life? Have you carried hurts long after the person who hurt you is gone from your life? How can we forgive without forgetting? Let's talk about forgiveness. Spencer and Erika share their experience, strength, and hope about forgiveness, and try to address these questions. What do the quotes that we opened the show with say to you about forgiveness? How does this compare to the way you used to think about forgiveness? Did you (or do you) think about forgiveness as giving a “free pass” to the person who hurt you? Do you now think about forgiveness as “a gift you give to yourself”? (Or can you be willing to think about it that way now?) How can forgiveness connect to the love of your higher power? What Al-Anon tools can you use to help move from anger and resentment to forgiveness? Inventory — seeing “my part” (and I there is almost always “my part” as well as “their part”) Compassion — especially helpful for me in finding forgiveness for my alcoholic loved one’s actions during her active disease. Prayer and meditation. Praying for the person I want to forgive, even if it’s just the “SOB prayer.” Seeing that the other person is a human being, with faults, and that they were doing the best they knew at the time. Setting boundaries to prevent the hurt from happening again. How can I find forgiveness for myself, for my past actions that hurt others? (Same tools?) What about “unforgiveable” behaviors? How can I let them go so that they’re not continuing to affect my serenity and continuing to drag me down?