Thanksgiving and forgiveness

Welcome to my blog, Simply Put!
I am excited to be writing this week’s blog during Thanksgiving week. It’s such a wonderful holiday.

We often think of Thanksgiving as a time of gratitude, but I also think of it as a time of letting go, of forgiving. One of the problems us women often have is that we don’t forgive ourselves. Now, I’m not talking about “let me make an excuse for myself so I don’t have to think about it”. I’m talking about forgiving ourselves of something that we know we have done wrong.

Here’s my thought for this week. First, consider something that you regret. Something that you did that might have hurt someone. It could be a friend or family member. Or it could be something you did to hurt yourself. This is the kind of thing that puts a knot in your stomach every time you think about it.

Now, allow yourself to think about it. This is the hard part. Making yourself sit with something that makes you feel bad about yourself is not easy. Yuck. But, it works. Try it. Identify exactly what you did and why it was not right. Just think about it for a minute or two. Look at the hurt you cause when you do that. Look at what is uncomfortable here.

Think about how you can fix it, either past (apology) or present (what l will do next time). Maybe you could apologize. Maybe you could do something kind for someone. Or make it up to yourself? Look at how you can fix it or do it differently next time.

Now, go fix it…past or present…and know that making good on your mistakes with others (or yourself) will free your conscience and you can just forgive yourself. Do that hard thing and reap the benefits! Say good bye to that nasty little knot in your stomach and go enjoy some turkey!