Forgiveness

One of the most impactful ideas I have ever read is that life gets a lot easier when we start accepting apologies we’ll never receive. I immediately spoke out loud, “Thank you for your apology, X. I forgive you.” The release I felt at that moment was palpable. Currently, my friends and I are in the middle of a thirty-one-day yoga challenge, and today’s practice was about forgiveness—specifically self-forgiveness. “Thank you for your apology, Heidi. I forgive you.”

Maria Lassnig painted hundreds of self-portraits. Examining every aspect of her physicality as well as her psyche and emotional states, she was unflinching in the way she looked at and recorded herself. Self-awareness and attention can be extremely generous processes, or we can avoid them—therein lies the choice. To forgive, or not to forgive.

‍