Happiness 11: Forgive others

If you are new to my blog I am working my way through my happiness list. 

I am searching, looking, trying and learning different ideas that make me happy.

I started out with a list of 100 ideas that I borrowed from someone else.

Now I am being brave and creating my own list.

Number 11 ~ Forgive others.

I have discovered over my 35 plus years that forgiving others brings happiness.
It brings peace of soul, peace of mind and peace to the tongue.
It is hard to do but so worth the time and effort.

It is to stop feeling angry or resentful toward someone for an offense, flaw, or mistake.
We all have flaws and we all make mistakes.

Many times when I was younger I was offended by someone's words or actions.
I would carry the anger around inside of me until I felt I was going to explode.

Now that I am a little older and hopefully a little wiser, I know that it is not worth remembering and festering about. It is a waste of my time and thinking of ways to get someone back or thinking of how terrible a person may be is not going to bring me any happiness at all.

From sad experience I have discovered that waiting for someone to apologise before you forgive them can mean that you are carrying around a grudge to the grave! Waiting for others to make the first move in the forgiveness area is a slow miserable process and taking it into my own hands has lead to happiness and joy.

Why is it that the things in life that are often the hardest to do bring us the greatest joy?

I know that: 
In a large family, forgiveness is practised daily.
In a marriage or relationship, forgiveness if often practised daily. Sometimes several times a day!
As a mother, forgiveness can be practised daily ~ towards children or yourself.

I also know that:

Just because you forgive someone, it does not mean you need to trust.
Trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

They are very different and apply to very different situations.

I know for sure that:

Forgiveness is possible.
It does bring peace.
It is necessary for happiness.

This my favourite clip about forgiveness.

It makes me weep and gives me hope.

                         

Of course I am going to do a post about:

Forgive yourself

stay tuned!!