Welcome to this week’s edition of The Source!

There’s a whole bunch of stuff – things I’ve said, things I’ve thought, things I’ve done – that I hope I’ll be forgiven for. Sometimes, they even consume me. They fill my head and swirl around stinging every part of my body like a crazed mosquito.

And that has helped me see that I can be happier if I forgive others. Yes… when the emotional sting is fresh, it’s really hard. But as the hours, days, weeks separate us from the act that hurt us… some of the emotional charge slips away.

Then it’s time to be free! Time to let go of what doesn’t serve us. Time to acknowledge that what someone else has said in a given moment doesn’t define them. Just like you don’t want to be defined by every word or action you’ve said or done in a moment where you weren’t clear, impeccable or at your best.

[Tweet “I want to be given the benefit of the doubt; so how can I not do the same for others? davidji.com”]

And I want to be free of those ties. I want to be free to love, to celebrate, to laugh, and to have peace in my heart and peace in my mind. I want tranquility to ripple through my soul, but I can’t do that if I’m holding a grudge. When we don’t forgive, we flood our self with all the chemicals and hormones that we experience in fight-flight. Why would I want to do that to myself? Why would I want to attack my body and my brain with toxic emotional turbulence? Why would I want to hurt myself over and over when the damage has already been done? I wouldn’t. And you shouldn’t either!

This week, let’s forgive someone for something they said or did. This doesn’t mean they’re exonerated. This means they wont be hanging around in our head or in our heart. This doesn’t mean that what they said or did was right. This means we will no longer allow it to control us, wound us, or hurt us.

This week, let’s take the pledge of forgiveness. Let’s get off our platform of universal moralism and let’s learn from this experience. Let’s grow from this moment. Let’s transmute our pain into self-love. Let’s transform our hurt into healing. Let’s commit to happiness and begin the process of letting go. We can start simply by giving our self permission to loosen our grip on the other person’s words and actions.

[Tweet “When we forgive, we free ourselves from the ties that bind us to the one that hurt us davidji.com”]

Let’s ask for our own forgiveness for something we’ve done. And in that process, we will receive the unconditional love of the Universe.

In the meantime, keep meditating, keep dying to the past, AND keep forgiving!! First yourself, then someone else. Remember, we transform the world by transforming ourselves.

Peace. -davidji