Forgive Yourself and Get Back to Your Joy

Stewardship | Intention | Practice

One of life's kindest acts is self-forgiveness. For many of us, this can be an unexplainably hard bridge to cross. Certain stories we tell ourselves often act as barriers, preventing us from truly letting ourselves off the hook from failure, downfall or setback. More importantly, they act as blockages that prevent and distance us from living fully in our joy. The thing about self-forgiveness, is that it requires you to fully accept that you are worthy of more. Not partially worthy. Not a smidgen worthy. But FULLY worthy. It removes you fully from the hook. It no longer leaves you suspended in air by the renditions of stories that trap you. In turn, it allows you to land on your feet to stand firmly, boldly and confidently in your truth.

Self-forgiveness is a form of self-love. It requires you to love yourself enough to not allow life's moments to keep you stagnate. It requires you to love on yourself despite the moments when self-love was sacrificed and was the last thing you had to offer yourself. Or when self-love was placed on the table for negotiation. Or when self-love was waived over to others with the expectation for others to love us in the manner, we should have been loving ourselves all along.

Self-forgiveness is taking back the responsibility for self-stewardship.  It requires you to stop the blame game, solely hold yourself accountable and own the pieces of the story that are truly yours. It requires you to let go of perfection and your need to always get it right. Life does not require you to always get it right. It simply asks you to grow from what you may have gotten wrong.

Self-forgiveness allows you to stop holding yourself hostage to unattainable and unrealistic expectations. It requires you to take accountability of how you showed up. It provides grace during times when you may have fumbled yourself and your inner knowing. It causes you to revisit the times you allowed external influences to override internal truths.

But self-forgiveness is not meant to be scary. It's meant to be a bridge to reconnect you back to you. It is a form of reclaiming your power and not allowing your circumstances to own it. If you want to know how to self-steward better, then forgive yourself more. Allow moments to be just that- moments. Temporary and seasonal. Stop yourself from carrying unnecessary baggage outside of the moments. Live only in life's seasons-one after the other. Stop carrying the baggage of unforgiveness with you into new seasons that are meant to transform and elevate you. Forgive yourself for not leaving old baggage where it belonged-in expired moments. If it does not grow you, strengthen you or stretch you, leave the baggage behind. Allow yourself to experience new moments baggage free.

Sometimes the wrong we feel others have done, can overshadow the self-care that went unpracticed. Self-forgiveness will allow you to practice self-stewardship with more clarity and purpose. Free yourself from your failures and enter into your joy. Take back your story-all of it.  Even the harsh pieces that caused you to land flat on your face. And once you've taken your story back own every piece of it. Own both the dirt you tasted in your mouth and the sunshine that glimmered down on you as you got back up. Forgive yourself for the pieces of the story that were yours that lead to your harsh landing. And find peace and surrender in knowing that even in your landing, the earth and the universe was still there to support you and provide you grounding to stand back up.

Self-forgiveness does not have to be insurmountable. It's time to forgive yourself and get back to your joy. You have too much promise and too much story left, to box yourself into one chapter of it, all because you are choosing not to forgive its main character—you.