The law of forgiveness

The law of forgiveness. The law of forgiveness simply says that you are mentally healthy to the degree to which you can freely forgive and forget grievances against you. It's the single most important determinant of whether or not you are a fully integrated, fully functioning adult human being. Because the tendency to blame and to hold grudges is a childlike pathological tendency that is possessed by all people who are mentally ill.

Now if you accept that as true, there's four people that you have to forgive:

Forgive your parents. Most of our research shows that almost all of our adult problems trace back to being unwilling or unable to forgive our parents something that they did that hurt us.

Forgive others. Forgive everyone else. Forgive everyone who has ever hurt you in any way or anything. Just let it go. Now some people say, well I can't forgive that person because what a terrible thing they did to me. Remember this, that forgiveness is perfectly selfish. Forgiveness has nothing whatever to do with the other person. It has only to do with your peace of mind and with your assuring your own mental integrity.

Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself for every wicked, senseless, brainless, foolish, stupid thing you ever did. Because every single person has done wicked, senseless, brainless, foolish, ridiculous things. But forgive yourself 100%.

Apologize if necessary. The last part of this is if you have done something to hurt someone else, go and apologize. It's amazing how many lives are ruined year after year by people who do not have the intestinal fortitude, the guts, the courage to go and say, I'm sorry.