My son Adam is always quick to forgive and forget. He might be screaming his head off now and few minutes later laughing his heart out. He might get upset with you for not giving him what he wants but later he will be showering you with kisses and hugging you tight. He gets on with his life as if nothing happened and everything is as it should be.As adults, it gets harder for us to forgive those who harm us. It is even harder to forget and get on with our lives as if nothing happened. True, as adults we are more acute on the gravity and hurtfulness of wrongs done to us. But if we choose to nurture our grievances, one day it grows to hate. Hate is the heaviest baggage of all to carry. It poisons the heart and the soul. If you want to fly high, you need to learn how to let go of life’s excess baggage.Be Like a Child. Think about a child’s laughter. Think how contagious it is and heartwarming. Think about how a child sees the world–always full of wonder and suppressed excitement that at any moment could blow into genuine peals of laughter. Remember how great it feels after you’ve had a great laugh? How often do we get to laugh nowadays? Seeing the world like a child could mean to turn around and ‘unlearn’ the bad habits we have accumulated throughout the years. It also means to throw away the baggage of bad vibes from the stress and disappointments of life. Think about how that will feel.How Do You Forgive? The fact is it will not be easy. Children have the capacity to forgive and forget because they still have very limited experience on the difference between bad & good actions. As we grow older we tend to see the world based on the kind of life experiences we’ve had and as influenced by people around us. As we gain life experience, the ‘wrongs’ done to us get magnified and sometimes we end up blaming the people we love for all the bad things that happened in our lives, even if they had no direct influence on the choices we made.It’s easy to nurture hate and run away from admitting that our own choices move us forward in life, for better or worse. To learn how to forgive others is to learn how to recognize your own weaknesses. It was never easy for me to accept that I am weak, but it was the first step in recognizing my strengths. Only strong people find the courage to forgive.How Do You Forget? To forget is even harder. Some ‘wrongs’ are like nails, leaving scars behind that can’t be remove. Some of us may even think that to forget a wrong done is itself unforgivable. However, if you really want to release all the baggage that is slowing you down in life, it is the only way. Forget and move on. If the person who harmed you is someone who left your life, someone you will likely never see again for the rest of your life, it will be easier to let go. Absence sometimes eases the pain and helps you forget. However, if that someone is still close by and the image of the person is a constant reminder of all the agony you have gone through, then you have to understand well why that person is still part of your life. If it is for valid reason that they get to stay, then always remind yourself of that. It is difficult but doable. Otherwise, let go off and be free of the burden of carrying theweight of hate in your soul.–Learn to be a child again as you carry your adult strength as a shield. Be open to the adventures of life and people but be strong enough not to surrender to hate when you get hurt. When a child falls, he simply stands up again, wipes the dirt off his shins and picks up where he left off. If we can learn to do this, then we are on our way to a baggage free life.
