Letting go of grudges, resentments, and choosing forgiveness instead can sometimes be a hot topic for a lot of people.

Oftentimes, we are driven by the urge to prove the other person wrong. To receive the gratification of them realizing their mistake. Of seeing them apologize, repent. Maybe even beg for your forgiveness.

For the most part, we don’t even realize that the drive comes straight from the ego – the part of you that exists to protect you, yes, but is in many ways like a child. It reacts. It doesn’t think. And it isn’t tapped into your Highest Self.

Because in truth, forgiving or letting go isn’t allowing the other person to win.

And it isn’t condoning what has been done.

It’s a practice you do out of love for yourself.

A phrase I came across a lot is that withholding forgiveness is like ingesting poison and expecting it to affect the other person.

That truly is what it boils down to.

While yes, you might cause some negative emotions in the other person as you show up in the energy of your grudge, it will still affect them less than it will you – if it affects them at all. They will move on with their lives, while you will live with the heaviness of what you choose to hold.

Dis-ease causes disease.

It causes an imbalance in the body that manifests through the loss of health.

You might not be aware of it in the present moment, but everything – everything – you are creating in the present moment shapes your future.

Do you want something as unimportant as a grudge to continue to shape your life? To worsen it down the line?

Or do you choose to thrive?

Choose to place your well-being above holding on to things that truly, truly do not matter?

For me, keeping that in mind and remembering that my health and well-being are worth far more than pleasing my ego, is more than enough to make letting to and practicing forgiveness something I now do on autopilot.

For some people, it might help to think broader than that.

If your own health isn’t motivation enough, then think of your loved ones. Think of your partner(s), your children, and anyone else you are close to and love.

Would you want their future to consist of seeing you ill? Seeing you suffer before you return to the light? Having to take care of you instead of thriving with you and enjoying the time you share on this planet together?

Unfortunately, I feel a lot of us have seen this play out in real life or know someone who has experienced that scenario. For me, just thinking about this always drives the point home, because I would never want to put my loved ones in that position. I wouldn’t want to burden them or affect their well-being based on something as selfish as harboring the poisonous energy of grudges.

Let go.

Give yourself freedom.

Remind yourself that that neighbor who annoys you, that driver who cut you off, that argument you had with your spouse over clutter, or that coworker who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else are not worth giving up your well-being for.

And the more you practice letting go, the easier it becomes.

Because once you feel the freedom of living in such state of flow, of letting friction be a passing thing that exists one moment and is gone the next, the more you will make this practice a part of your nature.

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