The Power of Forgiveness

With the turbulent times that we are all experiencing, how do we comfort ourselves? Outer worlds are falling apart and for many a new journey begins as we look elsewhere, within ourselves, to find the comfort the outer world has taken away. Where this inner searching takes us is different for each one of us but the catalyst for its beginning is usually very similar.

How do we tap into this inner peace and is there something that resides deep within ourselves that is available 24/7 and can always bring us comfort? The mystics talk about this spiritual essence and now scientists are beginning to explore and gain an understanding of this too. There may be many paths to the core of our being and changing our consciousness is a key factor. One of the greatest healing mechanisms to help us along the way is the path of forgiveness.

I am reading a very interesting book "Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality" by Barbara Bradley Hagerty. Within the book Bradley Hagerty shares her the story of her spiritual evolution. What caught my attention was how Bradley Hagerty was interweaving science with the search for a communion to a higher power. I couldn’t help but to think about all of this in relationship to forgiveness. Are we hard wired to forgive? What do you think? More on this later.

Healing Conflict through Forgiveness

I teach about forgiveness and conflict resolution both in my private practice as a psychologist as well as in corporations and with governments when I give trainings in conflict resolution and peace building in dangerous areas of conflict as a political psychologist. On a very pragmatic level forgiveness is part of a conflict resolution process. We have to heal before we can forgive and sometimes when we begin to understand why we are angry, and what are the underlying issues that caused the conflict we can begin to stop asking the question "why me" and start asking the question "why them?" what brought them to the place that they are which influenced how they behaved. This is not only part of a conflict resolution process, but also the forgiveness process. This allows us to begin to change our perceptions of the situation and begin to look at it with compassion and understanding. This is what forgiveness is about.