Self-Love Starts with Self-Forgiveness 

  Learning to love oneself starts with self-forgiveness. Focusing on self-love is essential and offers a multitude of benefits, including confidence, gratitude, and self-worth. Members in my online coaching program, A Pilgrimage to Self,  learn the value of self-love and its importance to living an Intentional Life. They now understand the ways in which loving yourself can dramatically improve their lives. They’ve discovered ways to silence their inner naysayer and to embrace self-love. This is the secret sauce of developing an Intentional Life.

In today’s post, I want to focus on one of the most important components of self-love, and that’s forgiving yourself. It’s true. Self-love starts with self-forgiveness. Forgiving yourself is a process that requires a great deal of introspection.

 Fortunately, if you’ve followed our blog, you've learned to recognize and manage your inner critic from other posts. You’ve focused on self-awareness and confidence. You understand that having a sense of purpose is important to cultivating love for yourself. These lessons and so many more have helped to prepare you for the challenge of learning self-forgiveness. Read on to discover what it truly means to forgive yourself, why it matters, and how to make it happen.

About Self-Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a concept that is difficult. Letting go of anger, hurt, and resentment caused by others can take years. It’s often even harder to forgive yourself, but it’s also necessary. We don't practice forgiveness for the other person; we practice forgiveness for ourselves. Self-forgiveness involves recognizing past actions that may have been harmful and accepting responsibility for them. It also requires moving on and getting past the negative emotions that can come with regret. Letting go is a requirement of self-forgiveness. We never said it would be easy, but it is important to the process of moving on and forward with an Intentional Life...it's healing.

Why It’s Important

Self-forgiveness and moving on is a requirement for healing. You can’t begin to feel better and to live in healthy ways if you’re stuck in negative emotions surrounding past events. You deserve forgiveness as much as anyone else – in fact, even more so. You know your true nature and your motivations. You understand the reasons for your errors, and you understand how hard you’re working to improve yourself. Forgiving yourself lets you know you’re worthy of great things. It’s freeing. You can go on to do better and to be better once you’ve truly forgiven yourself for your past. You need to forgive yourself before you can love yourself.

How to Forgive Yourself

You can begin to forgive yourself by showing yourself the same compassion you would show others. Forgiving yourself doesn’t mean that what you did was okay. It simply requires you to understand that you’re a different person now, that you’ve learned, and that you’re ready to do better. Allow yourself the compassion and the grace to do that. Also, go easy on yourself. Understand that self-forgiveness won’t happen overnight. It’s a process that takes time. Recognize the work that you’re doing to improve. This can go a long way toward helping you to forgive.

Self-forgiveness is a major part of loving yourself. It isn't selfish to take care of yourself...all of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being is your own responsibility. Hopefully, you now understand just what that means, why it matters, and how to work toward making it happen. Once you begin to forgive yourself, you’ll find that love comes more easily. You'll be in a better place to give love and receive love.

Until next time...

Lisa

P.S. A Pilgrimage to Self Lifestyle Coaching Membership is an online monthly program that includes masterclasses on a variety of topics...including developing a Forgiveness Practice...all materials (workbooks, ebooks, planners, videos, etc.) are included, Q & A Sessions, accountability to help you stay focused on your goals, and much more. I work with women that are ready to pivot...many are at a crossroads in their life...they want to find clarity, purpose, and direction for the next chapters of their lives...they want to live an Intentional Life NOW. If you are committed to making the personal journey within to connect your heart, mind, body, and spirit, DM me...we’ll have a quick chat to see if the membership is a good fit...if we both agree, you can get started on the PATHS straight away...you’ll start making progress on your focus goals.