By: Lakeview Health
The ability to forgive is sometimes considered a divine skill. You know this especially if you have ever been approached by someone who is making amends. Jerry Brown’s mother attends her son’s funeral with the man who killed him: a sobering display of forgiveness for a drunk driving death. Josh Brent will have to live with the charge of intoxication manslaughter in addition to his own guilt about murdering his roommate and best friend. You may have been in a car or even driving while intoxicated but lucked out that you were never put in the same position as Brent. Forgiveness is the key to setting your anger free. As addicts, it is key that we learn this skill in order to decrease the risk of relapse back into drug and alcohol addiction. Anger is one of the key elements of relapse and without being able to resolve our anger we will go down the addiction path once again. Brown’s mother teaches us that we are capable of forgiving even that transgression which seems unforgivable. How many of you are holding onto past slights rather than forgiving and moving forward? Experiencing forgiveness when we do step work is powerful in our recovery program. It should be given away. You do not forget your experience when you forgive others, that’s not the point. The point for forgiveness is to relinquish the anger that you have and set yourself free. How do you forgive? Share your comments with us below or on our Facebook page. Your explanation may help a fellow addict in learning this skill.
