In my article, 11 Spiritual Truths You May Want to Remember, I listed 11 short spiritual truths. It received a very positive reaction, but some people wanted a little more information about what I meant. So I’m going to take each spiritual truth I listed and expand on it, each in its own article over the next 11 weeks.
Spiritual Truth #9: Be kind to yourself. Everyone has moments they regret. Learn the lesson, shrug, and keep walking. Don’t drag your past with you into the future.
I love the quote from Maya Angelou, “When I knew better, I did better.” It really sums up this concept. No one is perfect, and no one is going to get through life without making some mistakes or taking some missteps.
When you make a mistake, do you beat yourself up? Do you sit down on the road and say to yourself, “Well that’s it. I screwed up. I don’t deserve a second chance. I don’t deserve to move forward. I need to sit here and wallow in what I’ve done until I’ve properly chastised myself.”
Please don’t do that to yourself. Every person makes mistakes. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, move on, and try not to make the same mistake twice. If what you did hurt or harmed someone else, accept whatever consequences come from that, make the best of your situation, and vow to do better in the future. Make amends and move on.
You’re doing your entire lifetime a disservice if you are unable to forgive yourself. There is no one on the other side who is saying, “No no no, you don’t get to forgive yourself. I want you to sit there and wallow in what you’ve done until you feel really bad about yourself.” That’s not happening.
Instead you’ve got guides on the other side saying, “Okay that didn’t work out too well did it? What did you learn from that? Excellent, now let’s try it again and see if we can manifest a better outcome for everyone.”
That’s it. And if you don’t understand the lesson, it will probably come again and you’ll get another chance to do it. Will you make the same mistake? Even if you do, you get still another chance.
When you flog yourself, when you refuse to forgive yourself, when you refuse to move on, it’s like carrying around a psychic sack behind you that trails behind you and drags you down like an anchor around your feet in an ocean. If you open the sack you’ll see all your failures. But none of them are actually helping you. None of them will move you forward. Cut them loose, and move on. Don’t forget them, but don’t carry them around with you either. It’s a heavy burden you are not required to carry.
