"Forgiveness means that you do not hold others responsible for your experiences." ~Gary Zukav

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.

Like your attic or garage, your mind stores things for you. You've got your memories and knowledge and emotions, you've got images of the best times in your life and remembrances of the sad times.

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

Forgiveness is not about making yourself a better person or making yourself right with God or working out your karma, and it's not about benefiting the person you're forgiving (those these may all be accomplished as a result).

Forgiveness has the potential to remove the obstacles that are holding you back and preventing you from achieving your dreams. By clearing out the unconscious, you figuratively remove a huge chunk of negativity.

We can turn to the Bible for this: '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.

When we focus on the hard parts, the bitternesses and challenges, then all day, every day, we bring hard parts, bitterness and challenges. We're here on earth, I believe, to learn from this school called planet earth that we're capable of manifesting exactly what we want in life.

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.

How much space is taken up by that useless garbage?

If we assign a numerical value, a percentage, to how much of your other than conscious is being used up with this negativity, how much would be too much? One percent? Five percent? What if you're really good at holding onto resentments and anger and you've got a whopping 15% tied up thinking about that person that did you wrong? Now consider that this percentage is the amount of income you are figuratively forced to give to a really lousy cause, a horrible cause, like you have to give 15% of your income to furthering illiteracy or killing dolphins. How would that sit with you?

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.


Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to sell to affluent clients using persuasion strategies. He runs unique public and private seminars and offers home study courses, audio/visual learning tools, and coaching programs in persuasion techniques. Find more free articles at www.MAXpersuasion.com/blog. Be sure to sign up for his free report entitled "Yes! Persuasion."