Life throws us many challenges over the years and each of these challenges whether we find them in the workplace, at home, at play, or with ourselves, they all have the capacity to teach us a valuable lesson.



Understand that life throws you the same type of challenges over and over again, disguised in various forms till you get the lesson. We can choose to learn the lesson and move on or ignore it. Even if we choose to learn the lesson we may not discover it in its entirety for a while. There may be several layers to peel away and many lessons to learn, from the same circumstance or event.

Ask yourself if there is a pattern emerging in the challenges that you face.

Now brace yourself.... the common pattern is likely to be - you are at the scene of every challenge.

Do not be offended by this - once I accepted this lesson in my own life, and was able to forgive myself; I was set free in so many ways. It was truly liberating.

Forgiveness of self and others allows you to move on and transcend your challenges and therefore is one of the keys to being healthy, wealthy and happy. The principle of forgiveness follows and ties in closely with self-love.

When dealing with your challenges, if you choose to blame others and the world, you are really not done with the challenge. If you insist on being right and making others wrong, you will not be able to release the particular limiting pattern that lies within you and is expressed in your current challenge.

When you take 100% responsibility for your challenges and look deep within, you are likely to discover that at the root of each challenge is a fear. If you can become aware of the particular fear, you can start to work through it and let it go.

However, if you choose the blaming route and insist that you are right and therefore a victim, then the energy of that fear will remain within you. You will continue to carry that energy around and because like energy attracts like energy - you will continue to attract the circumstances, events and people that bring this type of challenge to you.

All of this happens whether you agree with it or not, whether you are aware of it or not because this is based on one of the universal laws - the law of attraction. When you learn and apply the wisdom gained from the lesson, the universe no longer needs to send you the hard lesson. You are set free and can move on to bigger and better things.

We have all met people who choose to blame their past such as their parents, or their siblings, for their current situation. My question would be, "How is that working for you in your life?"

What happened to you may not be your fault, and you probably would of never wished it upon yourself but it did happen. However, now to continue to hold on to something negative that you cannot change is like choosing to ingest poison every day.

"Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die." Unknown

Generally speaking your parents, family, and the folks in your life all did as well as they could. They, just like you, could not pass down what they did not know, what they did not possess skill wise or what they had not experienced. It does not make them wrong, it just means they were unaware of certain things.

Sometimes an individual chooses not to blame others, but rather to blame him or herself. Blame is blame, and blame of self is not to be confused with taking responsibility.

Feelings of blame whether towards another or yourself bring about further negative reactions of sadness, anger, resentment, and even hate. The first step in learning and moving on is to accept what is and to apply the principle of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is never done for the benefit of the other but rather done by you for you.  The person you choose to forgive does not even need to know you are forgiving them. When you forgive yourself or another, you no longer have to experience those feelings of sadness, anger, resentment, revenge, and hate which have now been clinically proven to drain your health, your energy and furthermore even affect your bank account.

"You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well." Lewis B. Smedes

Whether at times you have played the role of perpetrator of hurt and harm, intentionally or unintentionally, or whether you have played the role of receiver of hurt and harm, it is when you can take responsibility for the feelings that fueled your actions and for your emotions that attracted the situation, that then the possibility for growth and healing, either individually or in a relationship can unfold.

I am always reminded that it is easy to live as Buddha sitting on the mountain but more of a challenge to live as Buddha when we are in a house with spouse and kids or at the office with work colleagues.

"Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love." Mahatma Gandhi

Now that you might be ready and willing to let go of being right in order to see more wealth, health and happiness in your life, simply go to the Internet and Google the word forgiveness. You will discover a variety of exercises that will allow you to implement the principle of forgiveness and therefore start seeing a positive shift in your life.