Self-forgiveness

From the Victorian Romantic Tarot, the Star; from the Dreaming in Color Cards, Loss:

Love yourself, accept yourself, forgive yourself and be good to yourself, because without you the rest of us are without a source of many wonderful things.

— Leo F. Buscaglia

There are times when we hurtful things in anger, when we make a terribly wrong choice or when we judge harshly someone who blameless. The consequences may be that we lose people and things that are important. How do we wash away the pain and heal our grief? First, we must acknowledge our part in the mess, which helps us be accountable as well as learn from our mistakes. We make amends and restitution where it is possible. But perhaps the hardest part is the process of self-forgiveness. Yet as Tara Brach explains, “Feeling compassion for ourselves in no way releases us from responsibility for our actions. Rather, it releases us from the self-hatred that prevents us from responding to our life with clarity and balance.”