To give you the best chance of fulfilling your potential for good health, happiness, and success, you must leave hurt, bitterness, and other negative feelings behind. By following a specific formula of forgiveness – the Morter Forgiveness Process – you can neutralize the negative residue of the past.

Forgiveness on your part does not lessen the seriousness or tragic nature of a situation. Forgiveness doesn’t change the situation—it changes your physiological response to it.

You forgive for your sake. When you forgive another person, it doesn’t affect them any more than your resentment does. While you hold onto anger, they may be going on with life completely undisturbed. You don’t forgive for the offender—you forgive for yourself.

Here’s how to start: Identify a situation, action, or person you feel needs forgiveness. This is often something that comes to mind repeatedly, even if it’s not relevant to your current focus. Notice your thoughts, feelings, and emotions around it.

Now that you’ve identified the situation, you’re ready to begin the process. You don’t have to agree with what happened to forgive it. You’re doing this for yourself. Until you release the past, it continues to have control over you—even if the other person is no longer alive.

The 5 Steps of Forgiveness

To be practiced with genuine feeling and emotion

1. Forgive yourself
   Begin by forgiving yourself for allowing the situation to impact your well-being.
   
2. Forgive the other person
   Release any resentment by forgiving the person for any harm they may have caused.
   
3. Give the other person permission to forgive you
   Acknowledge that you may have contributed in ways you weren’t aware of. This is a personal step—you don’t need to share it with them.
   
4. See the good in the situation
   Look for the lesson. Every experience, even difficult ones, offers an opportunity for growth.
   
5. Be thankful and wish everyone well
   Feel gratitude for the experience and what it taught you. Wish the other person well—and truly mean it.

Link to Morter March Monday Rebroadcast: