Forgiveness vs Dead Guinea Pigs.

The art of letting go and finding forgiveness is one that is often a challenge for us to master.

The most common time this is an issue is for victims of violent or sexual crimes.

The reason being, that people often associate forgiveness with being "right/wrong" - but actually, all it is, is simply releasing a negative feeling which is damaging you, not them.

I've been fortunate enough in my life to come across several spiritual teachers who've taught me various forms of visualization for forgiveness, (see future articles) and, I also grew up in a family that forgave trespasses easily.

One viewpoint which helps me achieve this, is that:  Everyone is doing the best that they can, from where they are at the time.

And, in the case of loved ones, no, they probably didn't mean to make you feel that way, and yes, they feel bad about it, and yes, its likely you're misinterpreting.  (at least, that's what has generally been the case in my life)

Now, a very interesting study has come about, which I think further installs the need for forgiveness to be an automatic exercise we go through.


When the human body is in a state of anger or resentment, the condensation of our breath becomes toxic.  Literally.

In fact, 5 minutes of "collected resentment" (meaning breathing into a container while in a state of resentment) is enough to kill a fully grown guinea pig.

If that isn't scary enough, after one hour, it magnifies, and is enough to kill 88 fully grown guinea pigs!!!


Anger is toxic. 
Resentment is toxic.

Letting something go in your life is an excellent, healthy choice, which doesn't make the offender any less wrong, or in any way less judged by society, or the universe/karma.


All it does, is free you from hurting yourself while trying to silently and ineffectively hurt them.

(Also, if you're having trouble with letting go, join a dojo and hit a heavy bag.  Its really fun :-)

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts

How could you best encourage a blogger to blog?