Mindful Parenting Collaboration - Topic 2: Forgiveness

First, if you’re reading this, you might have the feeling that you want to change some of your parenting practices or, perhaps, you're curious about “mindful parenting” and what it could be. Well, congratulations for taking a moment from your day to click on the link. Erin of it’s OK and I are going to be working together over the next 40 weeks (!) on a journey toward more mindful parenting and would love to have you join us. To learn how we envision The Mindful Parenting Collaboration working, please read the introductory post HERE.

Yeah. So the plan was to post every Friday, but as you can see, that's just not happening. Life seems to have "interfered" with blogging. I can easily forgive myself for this because, as one who is striving to be a more mindful parent, I feel that taking the time to pay more attention to my children and husband is the first priority. There are a million things that I must forgive myself for in my past, though. Some I will be able to work through. But others I'm not so sure about. They are VERY BIG things that may take me until my dying day to feel OK with - if I can do so at all. 

If you head on over to Erin's post about the topic of forgiveness at it's OK, you'll find a very in-depth look at what Topic 2 is all about. Here is an excerpt, but I urge you to read her entire post:

"Our second topic in the Mindful Parenting Collaboration is Forgiveness. If you practiced ten minutes a day of inner work for topic one, guess what? It's not time to stop. In fact, to live and parent mindfully, daily inner work is an important thing to strive for until it becomes a natural habit. For the next two weeks we challenge you to focus your inner work on Forgiveness."

"This week, make a list of things you need to let go of. Choose something to focus on releasing. Whatever type of inner work you prefer, focus on this release as you do it this week. You might want to write about it and link up next week. Or you might find that this topic is personal and best kept to yourself. Either way, join us and do some letting go!"

Though I am late in posting, I have been thinking things over. I tend to look on myself as a very forgiving person but, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if that's true. If someone does something against me or a loved one, I may not outwardly say, "I hate that person", but I will separate myself from them. No more contact, I might think of them from time to time, but I don't really worry about them. I think these might be grudges that I need to let go of. I have some major problems with my husband and some things he did in the past. I cannot trust him 100% and, if I can't trust him, how can I give him my entire heart? I need to work on forgiving him. Finally, there's me. As I said, there are some things that I cannot let go of. There are others that will take time, but with some work, I can forgive myself for. 

So, although it's in my head, I need to make an actual list of all of the forgiving I need to do. Having a visual reminder will help me keep on this, rather than "forgetting" and then not getting around to it. Keep on the look out for my follow-up post on Friday (hopefully!!!) to see how I've done.

If you've written a post on forgiveness, please add it here. It does not have to be a new post. This is a collaboration and all aspects are welcome. We can learn from each other and help one another on this journey toward more mindful parenting!