It’s easy to feel daunted by the idea of forgiveness. We all have people or situations we’ve needed to forgive and sometimes, it can feel next to impossible. It can seem to take years sometimes - even a lifetime.

Radical forgiveness is an idea developed by author Collin Toppin. It doesn’t take a lifetime. As a matter of fact, it can take minutes. One premise? That we simply entertain the idea that the problematic person or situation entered into our life for a reason. We don’t even have to believe it. This alone starts a ripple effect that breaks the hold of hurt and anger.
Here’s a little more about radical forgiveness:

Radical Forgiveness is easy and instantaneous because it is a shift in perception that allows you to understand that, in truth, looked at from the perspective of the spiritual ‘big picture,’ nothing wrong ever happened.

What brings about such a radical shift in perception - especially in situations where one feels very vicitimized and hurt? Surprisingly, it requires only a willingness to accept the possibility that life is not simply a series of random and haphazard events but is, in fact, the unfoldment of a Divine plan that is unfolding for us exactly how it needs to unfold for our spiritual growth.

In other words, every event, however pleasant or unpleasant, has been called forth by a Higher Aspect of ourselves that knows exactly what we need for our own healing. When we live more out of that idea than the victim story, life begins to work perfectly.

So how do we get there? Well, lack of forgiveness is nothing more than stuck energy, caused by past judgments, criticisms, blame and resentments. The way forward is use tools or processes that help us release that stuck energy, raise our vibration and become the loving beings we have the potential to be.

THE PROCESS OF RADICAL FORGIVENESS

In my workshops, I help people to shift the energy and move into Radical Forgiveness by basically following these five steps:

1. Tell the Story: You must begin from where you are. You are a spiritual being having a human experience that involves emotional experiences. We make it up that emotions are undesirable and wrong, so when we get upset about something we make up a ‘victim’s story’ and blame others for our unhappiness. Having that story heard and witnessed is the first step to letting it go. Likewise, the first step in releasing victimhood is to own it fully. So, in this step, you tell your story, and it is honored as your truth in the moment.

2. Feel the Feelings: Here you are encouraged to feel the feelings. It is the vital step that many so-called spiritual people want to leave out thinking that they shouldn’t have ‘negative’ feelings. That’s denial and misses the crucial point that the feelings is where the authentic power is and that our strength, in fact, lies in our vulnerability and our willingness to show up as fully human. You cannot heal what you don’t feel. When people access their pain, this is the beginning of their healing.

But this is not necessarily digging up the past. In fact, doing so is not necessary at all. Whatever is upsetting you now represents the past and following the feelings (the energy), as they are occurring while you tell your story, automatically heals the past pain. It is not even necessary to know what the original pain was. That’s why I say that Radical Forgiveness requires no therapy.

3. Collapse the Story: This takes the power out of the victim story you made up. The Navajo Indians had a ceremony for doing this. Anyone with a grievance could come to the circle three times to tell their story, and they would be heard. On the fourth occasion everyone would turn their backs. “Enough already! Your story is just a story. There’s no real truth to it - it is just an illusion. We have heard it three times and we no longer wish to give it power. Let it go and then let yourself move towards what is really true.”

4. Do a Radical Forgiveness Reframe: Here we replace the ‘illusionary’ story with another story - the Radical Forgiveness ‘story.’ This one says that what appeared to have happened, far from being a tragedy, was in fact exactly what we wanted to experience and was in that sense, absolutely perfect.

This is often very difficult to accept, but the good thing is it does not require you see WHY it is perfect, or that you must GET the lesson involved. It is nearly always beyond our ability to comprehend anyway, so it’s a waste of time trying to figure it out.

Willingness is all that is required You just have to be willing to open to the idea that there is a gift in it somewhere, and then choose peace. It really is that simple. When we get used to thinking this way, it’s amazing how simple and easy life becomes. It’s so freeing to stop resisting (judging) life and surrender to what wants to naturally occur. Life with Radical Forgiveness can be very sweet.

5. Integration: After you have allowed yourself to be willing to see the perfection in the situation, it is necessary to integrate that change at the cellular level. That means integrating it into the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies so it becomes a part of who you are. It’s like saving what you have done on the computer to the hard drive. Only then will it become permanent. I find that breathwork is the best way to integrate this work and I seldom ever do a Radical Forgiveness workshop without what I call a ‘Satori’ breath session. Other ways to integrate is through speaking affirmations, walking, doing forgiveness worksheets, ritual and ceremony.

The Olympics have been going on a long, LONG time. Our collection of quotes includes the new and the very old!

“So you wish to conquer in the Olympic games, my friend? And I too, by the Gods, and a fine thing it would be! But first mark the conditions and the consequences, and then set to work. You will have to put yourself under discipline; to eat by rule, to avoid cakes and sweetmeats; to take exercise at the appointed hour whether you like it or no, in cold and heat; to abstain from cold drinks and from wine at your will; in a word, to give yourself over to the trainer as to a physician. Then in the conflict itself you are likely enough to dislocate your wrist or twist your ankle, to swallow a great deal of dust, or to be severely -thrashed, and, after all these things, to be defeated.”

~ Epictetus (Greek philosopher associated with the Stoics, AD 55-c.135)
The greatest memory for me of the 1984 Olympics was not the individual honors, but standing on the podium with my teammates to receive our team gold medal.

~ Mitch Gaylord (American gymnast, 1984 Summer Olympics)

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.

~Pierre de Coubertin (founder of modern Olympic Games)

The Olympics have been with the world since 776 B.C., and have only been interrupted by war, especially in the modern era.

~ Bill Toomey (American decathlete, 1968 Summer Olympics)

Perhaps I don’t give the impression that I’m hurting on the track. But that is because I am animated by an interior force which covers my suffering.

~ Noureddine Morceli (Algerian athlete, 1996 Summer Olympics)

Maria Nafpliotou, in the role of an ancient Greek high priestess, lights a torch from the Olympic Flame during the handing over ceremony for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics at the Panathenian marble stadium in Athens on October 29, 2009. (ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images) #

I stumbled across this site today and couldn’t help but smile. Feel free to sprinkle your conversations with these random facts today. Will people be impressed? Perhaps not. But they’ll think you’re a wealth of strange knowledge!

1.  Rubberbands last longer when refrigerated.

2.  Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

3.  There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

4.  The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

5.  The shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

6.  There are more chickens than people in the world.

7.  Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

8.  The longest one-syllable word in the English language is
“screeched.”

10. All of the clocks in the movie “Pulp Fiction” are stuck
on 4:20.

11. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.

12. “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.

13. All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

14. Almonds are a member of the peach family.

15. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.

16. Maine is the only US state whose name is just one syllable.

17. There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous” - tremendous, horrendous, stupendous and hazardous.

18. Los Angeles’ full name is “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula”

19. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

20. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

21. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

22. In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10

23. Al Capone’s business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

24. The Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were named after
Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s “It’s
A Wonderful Life.”

25. Some dragonflies have a life span of 24 hours.

26. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

27. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

28. It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

29. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

30. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

31. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a
radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

32. Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.

33. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

34. There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

35. “Stewardesses” is the longest word that is typed with only
the left hand.

Source: LinkyDinky

Hannah Mitchell is 8 years old and blogging about her first Olympic games. What makes this blog so special? Seeing something as colossal as the Olympics and the beautiful city of Vancouver from a child’s point of view is refreshing and fun. It removes all the hype and gives you the child-like essentials, such as:

Then, we were walking back to the hotel when we saw six guys with suits standing outside a building. A limo pulled up and a man walked out, surrounded by the six guys in suits. We didn’t know who he was, but we asked a person next to us and she said it was the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. We looked his picture up on the Internet at the hotel, and it was really him.

Check out her blog when you get a chance. Get a child’s eye view of the Olympics and Vancouver!

Perhaps we inherently know this: when we feel happier and more content, our heart literally feels more at ease, as does the rest of our body. Conversely, when we’re stressed, we often feel the immediate effects physically. Now research proves our innate assumptions to be true:

Researchers in Europe discovered a unique independent relationship between positive emotions and coronary heart disease, for the first time ever. Appearing in the latest issue of the leading cardiology publication European Heart Journal, the study shows that happiness, content and enthusiasm are among the emotions that may be tied to a much better level of health, regardless of age and gender. The new, major review showed that happier people tend to experience a lot less hearth problems that those who spent less time laughing or feeling good.

According to scientists involved in the new observational investigation, the conclusions were produced only by looking at how people evolved over time. But the leader of the work, Dr Karina Davidson, an expert at the Columbia University Medical Center, says that the results could in the near future inform physicians on developing new approaches to safeguarding people from the risk of developing heart conditions. The scientist adds that more studies are needed on the issue, before medical recommendations can be given by experts without any risks

“We desperately need rigorous clinical trials in this area. If the trials support our findings, then these results will be incredibly important in describing specifically what clinicians and/or patients could do to improve health,” she explains. Davidson is the director of the CUMC Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, as well as the Herbert Irving associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at the university. This latest study was conducted on 1,739 healthy adults, over a period of about ten years. All the 862 men and the 977 females in the investigation were a part of the 1995 Nova Scotia Health Survey, PhysOrg reports.

Source: Softpedia.com

There’s something comforting about quotes. It’s nice to know that people, since the beginning of time it seems, have experienced the deepest and most complex feelings, just like you. Not only have they experienced them, they’ve recovered. And that is our topic this week: RECOVERY

Courage consists in the power of self-recovery.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery.” Joanne Kathleen Rowling “The hardest thing you can do is smile when you are ill, in pain, or depressed. But this no-cost remedy is a necessary first half-step if you are to start on the road to recovery.” Allen Klein “The goal of spiritual practice is full recovery, and the only thing you need to recover from is a fractured sense of self. ” Marianne Williamson “Love is a mutual self-giving which ends in self-recovery.” Fulton J. Sheen “A plane is a bad place for an all-out sleep, but a good place to begin rest and recovery from the trip to the faraway places you’ve been, a decompression chamber between Here and There. Though a plane is not the ideal place really to think, to reassess or reevaluate things, it is a great place to have the illusion of doing so, and often the illusion will suffice.” Shana Alexander “Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.” Marcus Aurelius “It is when our budding hopes are nipped beyond recovery by some rough wind, that we are the most disposed to picture to ourselves what flowers they might have borne, if they had flourished . . .” Charles Dickens Marcus Aurelius

We’ve told you about the Songs of Love Foundation in previous posts but since their good work doesn’t stop, we have more to tell you. This week’s story is about rock musician Jason Mraz contributing to the cause for 13 year-old Christian Burn.

According to Good News Now:

Christian is battling Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, and Mraz recorded the song for the Songs of Love Foundation, which provides personalized songs to young people with serious illnesses. The organization draws on the talents of 350 professional lyricists, instrumentalists and vocalists.

Songs of Love was founded in New York by John Beltzer after his brother Julio, the lead singer in his band, took his own life. Shortly before dying, he had recorded a composition called “Songs of Love,” which inspired Beltzer to start his nonprofit.

Their first song was recorded for a 5-year-old cancer patient named Brittany in Memphis, Tenn. Mraz became involved with Songs of Love through a friend of his, Michael Natter, who also co-wrote the song with his wife, Nancy. Natter approached him about recording the landmark 20,000th song in the organization’s 14-year history.

Here’s the song and video. Beautiful!

Christian Burn

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and one of the longest married couples, Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher, were getting busy…on Twitter. That’s right. They took questions from people all over the world and revealed some the secrets of their 84 year-old marriage. Check it out at @longestmarried.

Here are some of their response Tweets:

• With each day that passed, our relationship was more solid and secure. Divorce was NEVER an option - or even a thought.
• We grew up together & were best friends before we married. A friend is for life - our marriage has lasted a lifetime.
• We wouldn’t change a thing.There’s no secret to our marriage, we just did what was needed for each other & our family.
• (Re: Mr. Right) Mine was just around the corner!He is never too far away, so keep the faith - when you meet him, you’ll know.
• Respect, support & communicate with each other.Be faithful, honest & true. Love each other with ALL of your heart.
• The children are grown, so we talk more now. We can enjoy our time on the porch or our rocking chairs - together.

In a world still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, it’s refreshing to see Europe making such substantial changes. Take a look at these figures:

Wind and solar technology made up over half of Europe’s new electricity generating capacity in 2009, as the number of new coal and nuclear facilities fell.

More wind capacity was installed in Europe during 2009 than any other electricity-generating technology, according to statistics released today by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA)

Wind accounted for 39 per cent of increased European energy capacity, ahead of gas (26 per cent) and solar (16 per cent). In contrast, the nuclear and coal power sectors decommissioned more megawatts of capacity than they installed in 2009, with a total of 1,393 MW of nuclear and 3,200 MW of coal decommissioned.

According to the EWEA report, €13 billion has been invested in wind farms across the EU in the last year, which are now capable of meeting 4.8 per cent of EU energy demands.

Spain is the country with the biggest share of new wind capacity (24 per cent), followed by Germany (19 per cent), Italy (19 per cent), France (11 per cent) and the UK (10 per cent).

The wind energy sector has grown by an average of 23 per cent over the last 15 years, with annual installations up from 472 MW in 1994 to 10,163 MW in 2009.

This week, we tackle a tough topic. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, let’s talk about the flip side of love (or is it?) - heartbreak.

Here are some quotes for people who may be in love recovery mode this week. Remember, heartbreak is essentially positive. It means love stopped by for a visit.

It hurts to breathe because every breath I take proves I can’t live without you.
Anonymous

To fall in love is awfully simple, but to fall out of love is simply awful.
Bess Myerson

A life with love will have some thorns, but a life without love will have no roses.
Anonymous

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
Marcus Aurelius

Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you never knew.
Anonymous

The stupidest mistake in life is thinking the one who hurt you the most, won’t hurt you again.
Anonymous

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
Anonymous

Love is unconditional, relationships are not.
Grant Gudmundson

For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, It might have been.
John Greenleaf Whittier