“Forgiveness means that you do not hold others responsible for your experiences.” ~Gary Zukav If you’re like me, you have a garage or attic or basement full of junk–old clothes that don’t fit or that are outdated, boxes of children’s toys, paperwork you’ll never need or even look at again. We have sentimental attachments to things that are just taking up space. These items, while maybe not physically holding you back, may be psychologically holding you back. They are definitely weighing you down. And yet, unless you have a real problem with an overabundance of ‘stuff’, it’s probably not that much of an issue. What about the things you store in your mind? You’ll find some memories there of the pleasures of living–weddings, anniversaries, births–maybe some sadnesses–deaths and loss. These are what make up a complete life, the highs and lows, ebb and flow. You’ve also got knowledge and appreciation up there, as well as all of your abilities–how to bake a cake, change your oil, ride a bicycle. We’ve also got some junk up there. One of the fastest ways to get rid of this junk is the act of forgiveness. In an upcoming article I’ll give you some specifics on how to use forgiveness to dispose of some of this useless garbage. The ultimate purpose of forgiveness is not to make you a better person, it’s not to benefit the person you’re forgiving, and it’s not even to make you right with God or work out your karma (though these are all side benefits of forgiving). The real purpose is to clear out your other than conscious mind, to free it up from any negativity that is holding you back and preventing you from achieving everything you ever wanted. ‘By beholding be become changed.’ That’s one of my favorite Bible quotes. This means, that the more you focus on, the more you are going to become what that focus is. Are you focusing on creating money or on debt? Are you focusing on health or on sickness? To focus on bitter feelings and hard knocks and tough life lessons, then that becomes a piece of us. One of the reasons we’re here on planet earth, the school called earth, is to learn to understand we are in dominion, not domination, and we are able to have everything we ever wanted. Try this: imagine you’re dividing your unconscious into sections and lump all of the ‘bad’ parts–the troubles, difficulties, problems, resentments–into one section. What percentage of your unconscious is being consumed by that mental garbage? If you took it all and assigned it a value. . .a percentage, as in, well, 5% of my unconscious, or other than conscious, is taken up by this junk. How does that affect you to think of that large a chunk of your mind is engaged in negativity? What if you had to give 5% of your income to a really negative cause? I’m assuming that would not please you. When we employ the process of forgiveness, we clear out that 1 or 5 or 15% and make space for more of what we want. Coming soon: Part II–the process of forgiveness is mapped out for you.