Let Go of HURT and Let Love In
Louis Zamperini once said: “The hardest thing in life is to forgive. But hate is self-destructive. If you hate somebody, you’re not hurting the person you hate, you’re hurting yourself. Forgiveness is healing.” Being hurt emotionally means you’ve experienced a circumstance or situation that has brought a change in your way of thinking, which is not always for the better. When someone does something wrong, or they wronged us in some way that mattered to us, the first thing we want is an apology. We want them to acknowledge and validate how we are feeling. But putting all the blame on someone else can backfire as it gives them all the power.
As Dr. Tyler VanderWeele, co-director of the Initiative on Health, Religion, and Spirituality at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health quotes: “Forgiving a person who has wronged you is never easy but dwelling on those events and reliving them over and over can fill your mind with negative thoughts and suppressed anger. Yet, when you learn to forgive, you are no longer trapped by the past actions of others and can finally feel free.” Nursing your grievances is a bad habit because it keeps the hurt alive and ends up hurting you more than it hurts those that did you wrong. Letting go of the hurt feelings is never easy. It requires practice and a commitment to releasing the feelings as they are likely to resurface again. Remember this quote when you are on your journey: “We cannot choose to have a life free of hurt. But we can choose to be free, to escape the past, no matter what befalls us, and to embrace the possible.” Letting go of hurt allows you to Let Love In because once you let go you are no longer trapped by the people or events that hurt you in the first place. You are free to choose a different reaction in the face of the memories and emotions that led to the hurt.
At IdareU2bee.com we have a team that creates programs, activities, workshops, and books that support the social and emotional skill development of kids, parents, guardians, and teachers. One of the biggest things we notice is how much hurt can steal away dreams. It may seem you can never turn off your heart from the hurt and it can seem impossible to overcome. It is not complicated to minimize the impacts that hurt can have if you allow yourself to discover the power that the emotion of love can have on your mind and your body during those scary moments.
Letting go of hurt helps free us from the heavy emotions we carry around. When you are free from those heavy emotions it makes you more confident and when you are more confident, you become less attached to what went wrong and can focus more on what could go right. Give yourself permission to accept your emotions for what they are and then critically think through the situation to know you deserve the best so that hurt does not stop you.
Practice the following actions to help you LET GO OF HURT and LET LOVE WIN!
- Make the decision to let it go- Your hurt will not go away on its own, you need to be committed to “let it go.” Not making this a conscious choice up-front, will end up as self-sabotage to any effort to move on from this hurt.
- Focus on the present- By staying present you are allowing yourself to let love in. By only focusing on your hurt, you are not making room for growth. Stay present and look ahead to your new possibilities.
- Forgive yourself- Forgiving yourself is the most important part, as sometimes we may end up blaming ourselves for the situation or hurt. There’s no reason you need to keep looking down on yourself, you are human, and everyone gets hurt. forgive yourself so you can experience future peace and happiness.
To train your brain to work through your hurt try our ACTIVITY SHEET BELOW. Until next time, stay confident, courageous and keep building your KIND MIND! Share it with your friends!
