By Aimee Mosco
“Allowing yourself to have gratitude for all of your experiences opens you up to the possibilities of forgiveness. Gratitude paves the road to forgiveness and forgiveness allows love to flow.” Gratitude + Forgiveness X(LOVE) = Happiness, by Aimee Mosco and Donald L. Ferguson, page 57.
There are so many things in life for which to be grateful, such as the presence of other living beings in our lives, the events that unfold for us, the gifts others share with us, and most importantly, the lessons we have learned through personal experience.
It is very easy to feel and express appreciation for the people and things in life that lift us up. It almost goes without saying that it is appropriate to feel grateful for these gifts. In fact, according to the unwritten rules of decency, we are expected to feel, or at least convey appreciation for that which inspires us to feel good.
It is less customary and much more difficult to feel grateful for the people, experiences and events that sit at the roots of our greatest challenges. It is equally as important, if not more so, to bring ourselves to a place where we can feel deep and authentic gratitude for what and who causes hurt in our lives. It is to our greatest benefit to do so.
The fact of the matter is that we put our souls in these human bodies to learn. That is our number one objective during our time here on this planet. We are meant to grow our souls through experience. That means ALL of our experiences matter, and often times, we learn more from challenge than from comfort.
When you understand that your challenges hold the power to accelerate your soul growth, your focus shifts. You begin to look for the lessons in those challenges and fully integrate the growth with a higher degree of consciousness. This is when it begins to feel natural to express gratitude for something that hurt you in the moment it occurred.
Deep-seated and conscious appreciation for challenge and what evolves from it sets the stage for forgiveness to flourish in the most authentic way. If you acknowledge the growth that came with your pain and you are grateful for that growth, it becomes unnecessary to hold on to the pain any longer. It served its purpose. You set your pain free when you are truly able to forgive.
As you bid farewell to your pain with forgiveness, you make more room in your heart and mind for love to flow.
In my pursuit to help human beings connect with the gifts of gratitude, I invite you to join Facebook group Evolve through Love hosted by Elizabeth Scarcella and me. Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/evolvethroughlove/ and share with us.
Aimee Mosco is an Author, Intuitive Channel, Spiritual Teacher and Co-Founder of Intentional Healing Systems, LLC. Aimee’s desire to help others inspired her first book “Gratitude + Forgiveness x (LOVE) = Happiness”. Aimee serves as Vice Chair to the World Game Changers Board of Directors, a charitable CIC based in the UK. Find Aimee at www.ihsunity.com
