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Rising Into ForgivenessI know of few things that can bring us to a sense of peace faster than forgiveness and few things that can keep us from a sense of peace as a lack of forgiveness. This applies equally whether the person we need to 'forgive' is ourselves or another, or perhaps both.
One rises into an experience of forgiveness. I use the term 'rises' because I think that best describes the experience. I believe it has to do with, not the events of our lives, but our interpretation of those events. We interpret the events of our lives based on a belief system that is formed by an extremely large set of circumstances. Forgiveness is a process of experiencing an interpretation outside of those circumstances.
The passageway to forgiveness that has worked best for me is surrender. Through the process of surrender we invite a shift to our awareness to something higher. A prayer which I have found helpful for this is, "Dear Spirit, I pray that I should see this situation as you would have me see it, not as I see it." I use the term 'Spirit' as a generic term for the Divine. Use whatever name best describes the divine for you.
Our resistance to forgiveness stems from our attachment to our viewpoint. We cannot imagine that other interpretations could be valid. And based on our experiences that originated our viewpoint they aren't. But forgiveness does not happen on the level of the intellect. Which is why simply rehashing an experience in our minds rarely helps. The miracle of forgiveness happens on the level of the heart, which is probably our most direct connection to the Divine. The energy of forgiveness, love, forms there and rises to our conscious thinking level which then creates a completely new interpretation. Now the heart and mind are united and a wonderful sense of peace abounds.
Forgiveness is a vehicle to transform those parts of our soul where we have forgotten love. It is never that love is not there, it has only been forgotten. Forgiveness is a process to help us simply remember, and experience, our own (and those we interact with) true nature, love.