Forgive Your Wayto a Healthy Life

by: Bay Path College

Who knew that becoming more forgiving could lead to major health benefits and stress relief? Dr. Frederic Luskin has advocated this forgiveness training methodology over many years through a combination of lectures and hands-on instruction. Forgiveness has been shown to reduce anger, hurt, depression and stress and lead to greater feelings of optimism, hope, compassion and self-confidence.

It sounds great, but is it easier said than done? How does Dr. Luskin go about training individuals throughout the country to reach this abstract place of forgiveness? According to Luskin, individuals go through four distinct learning stages that lead them to the end goal. Here’s a sneak peak:

1. Realize the choice we’re making: Taking the focus from what others are doing to us to the realization that our anger response is a choice we are making.

2. Switch the focus: Instead of blaming outside people and situations for what happens, turn the focus on what we are doing to ourselves. In this step, we realize that anger doesn’t ìfeel goodî and take steps to release it and forgive.

3. Awareness: Here, we start to notice our anger responses, even to everyday situations. We also realize that anger is an uncomfortable emotion and that the amount of time we dwell on it is a choice we make.

4. Make a change: With our new understanding of anger as an emotion, we realize that it is both wasteful and hurtful to other people. At this stage, we stop reacting to life with anger.

Let’s face it, no one ever teaches you exactly how to forgive. “People have taught us how to get angry, how to become depressed, even how not to react with rage when life doesn’t turn out as we want it to,” comments Dr. Luskin. “The process of forgiveness can be a liberating experience. One that if practiced proactively, can lead to a wonderful experience of life.”

To delve deeper into this subject visit www.thepowerofforgiveness.com

And attend Dr. Luskin’s Breakout Session Forgive for Good (https://www.baypathconference.com/forgive-for-good/) at the 2012 Women’s Leadership Conference.

Frederic Luskin, Ph.D. is the Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He also serves as the Co Chair of the Garden of Forgiveness Project at Ground Zero in Manhattan.