When life gets hard and people let you down, it's human nature to be hurt and angry. Ideally, we work through that hurt and let it go, moving on "to the greater achievements of the future." Sometimes, though, we can't (or don't) release our negative feelings. We nurse those grudges, feed them until they control a much larger part of our heart than we would like to admit. In her book "Entering the Castle," Caroline Myss speaks about parts of our soul as rooms in a castle. We keep those people who have angered us, she says, in our dungeon.
"Haul open the heavy, lead door and walk down the damp, stone stairs. The atmosphere gets darker and colder as you descend. You are now in the dungeon of your soul. As you walk through, notice there are cells for prisoners lining the walls. Everyone you cannot forgive or whom you resent or wish to harm is held by you in these cells. The parents you cannot forgive are in a cell; the business partner who cheated you and whom you still resent is in a cell; the ex-spouse is in a cell."
We know that keeping people in the dungeon, holding on to all that pain is not good. It's hurting US! It saps our energy, brings down our vibration and keeps us from our highest good. But letting go of old hurts is HARD. If it were easy, we would have already done it! Caroline gave us a prayer for those times, and I find it very helpful.
"Help me to forgive because I don't want to forgive. I feel entitled to be angry even though the anger is killing me, not them. And no one really cares that I'm angry. It's destroying my life, not theirs. I want to punish someone, so I punish my kids or I punish some innocent people who never harmed me because it's my way of punishing them. So I really don't want to forgive because then I think all of my hurt will be forgotten and that feels so unfair. But what is fair? No one's hurt is fair. I just think that justice should revolve around me. So, help me to forgive, one person at a time, beginning with _____________." That's your beginning. You take it from there until you have emptied your dungeon.Labels: Caroline Myss, dungeon, forgiveness, Lezli Goodwin, release, spirituality
