When you forgive, you free yourself from the burden of being angry and sad, from brooding and going over what you or someone else has done. You cannot be angry and happy at the same time. When you learn to forgive and let go you can move through life with a lighter mind and lighter baggage, and live your life more fully.
Here you will find two different step-by-step processes that are easy to follow: one for forgiving yourself and one for forgiving others. In the self-forgiveness process, you receive support in seeing what you have done with understanding and compassion. You did what you did because it was the best you could think of at the time, given who you were then and how you were thinking in that moment.
And the same is true for others. They believed they had good reasons for doing what they did. Yet things still went wrong. It is very rare to consciously want to harm another person. It is lack of understanding, inability, unconsciousness, confusion, and mistakes—and all of that can be understood and forgiven. The person was thinking poorly in that moment, and you and I have done the same, many times. That is simply how life is for all human beings on this planet.
If you want to see people—yourself, me, and others—in this way, you can. That is forgiveness, and these processes will help you get there.
An important part of the forgiveness method Barbro works with is activating your higher consciousness, which she calls the Higher Self. You do this with the help of visualization, meaning that with your eyes closed you call forth an inner image.
Naturally, you can also turn to God for help in the process. Choose which process that suits you best.
If you are guiding someone else — either as a professional or as a friend — you will find instructions in the margin of each process.
Barbro Holm Ivarsson is a licensed psychologist, Master of Law, consultant, author, and a specialist in forgiveness. For more than 30 years, she has helped thousands of people forgive themselves and others. Barbro also has deep personal experience of struggling to forgive, and she speaks openly about this in her book Forgive and be free. The book is currently available only in Swedish but will be translated into English in the near future.
Contact: barbro.holm-ivarsson@telia.com
