What clutter do you have in your attic or basement? Are you a "pack rat" or "collector" of stuff? Maybe you've got not just your stuff, your kid's stuff and your spouse's stuff, but the old belongings of a deceased relative that you just can't seem to part with.

Are these physical items holding you back? Perhaps if you long to live a Zenlike lifestyle they are, but most likely, they're just there.

What about the things you store in your mind? You'll find some memories there of the pleasures of living--weddings, anniversaries, births--maybe some sadnesses--deaths and loss. These are what make up a complete life, the highs and lows, ebb and flow. You've also got knowledge and appreciation up there, as well as all of your abilities--how to bake a cake, change your oil, ride a bicycle.

I'm going to show you a way to discard this junk through the simple act of forgiveness.

The purpose of forgiveness is not to benefit the other person that you're forgiving (though it probably will). The purpose of forgiveness is is not to make you a better person (though it probably will). And the purpose of forgiveness is not to make you right with God (though if you believe that it will, it probably will help).

The real purpose is to clear out your other than conscious mind, to free it up from any negativity that is holding you back and preventing you from achieving everything you ever wanted.

The Bible says, 'By beholding we become changed.'

This is the law of attraction that has become so popular lately but has been around forever. You are what you focus on. It's that simple.

To focus on bitter feelings and hard knocks and tough life lessons, then that becomes a piece of us. One of the reasons we're here on planet earth, the school called earth, is to learn to understand we are in dominion, not domination, and we are able to have everything we ever wanted.

The first step is to imagine you can divide your unconscious up into sections. Now imagine you're lumping all the negativity, the troubles and resentments and regrets, into one section.

What percentage of your unconscious is being consumed by that mental garbage?

If we took all of this anger and bitterness and we assigned it a value in our unconscious mind... Well like, let's say that there is 5% down in there somewhere, even 1%. How would that affect you? It's like Chinese water torture. It's a drip, drip, drip, pain, pain, pain, agony, agony, constant problems dripping, dripping, never stopping. If we could somehow root that out, get rid of it, and instead, focus on our universes, what would our life become?

Forgiveness is the process of clearing out all of that to make room for more good in our lives.

Coming soon: Part II--the process of forgiveness is mapped out for you.