Authors: Iyanla Vanzant
– I F
ORGIVE
M
YSELF FOR
B
ELIEVING
–
EXAMPLE
I forgive myself for choosing to believe that I cannot turn my life in a new direction.
I forgive myself for choosing to believe
I forgive myself for choosing not be believe
I forgive myself for believing that it was wrong for me to choose
I forgive myself for believing that it was wrong for me to choose not to
– T
APPING
S
EQUENCE
–
Review Basic
Tapping Sequence
Guidelines.
– REFLECTIONS –
Forgiveness is not forgetting; it is simply denying your pain the right to control your life.
—C
ORALLIE
B
UCHANAN
,
W
ATCH OUT
! G
ODLY
W
OMEN ON THE
L
OOSE
I F
ORGIVE
M
Y
R
ELATIONSHIP WITH
M
ONEY
I have no cause for anger or for fear, for You surround me. And in every need that I perceive, Your grace suffices me.
Father, let me remember You are here, surrounding me with Your everlasting Love, perfect peace, and joy. I pivot my attention to the natural dwelling place of my mind, my natural awareness. These are the thoughts that move and keep my mind safe in You, free of the ego’s ideas that hurt me. Let me remember You are here, and I am not alone.
—P
RAYER FOR
A C
OURSE IN
M
IRACLES
W
ORKBOOK
L
ESSON
348
– Forgiveness Story by Iyanla Vanzant –
I
grew up in a paycheck-to-paycheck mentality. My mom got paid every other Friday. I loved payday Fridays because it meant we would go to the supermarket to get all of the things we needed to fill the fridge and cupboards. It gave me a sense of security to see two or three bottles of milk and a full loaf of bread. Payday meant that at least for a few days I didn’t have to think about eating too much or about there not being enough of the basics for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Two or three days before payday it was a totally different story. On those days, I knew to make only half of a sandwich and drink only half of a glass of milk in order to stretch what we had until we had more. I carried this pattern in my life as an adult—everything had to be gone before I could have more. This was especially true when it came to my relationship with money.
When I decided to put my grandson in a private high school, I had no idea how I was going to pay for it. At the time, I was barely covering the basics, but I knew that public school was not an option for him. I was able to get a personal-education loan to get him into the school, and I was going to figure out a way to pay the monthly tuition. By the end of his freshman year, I was four months behind; the school notified me that in order for him to return to school, his tuition payments had to be up-to-date. When you have a paycheck-to-paycheck mentality, it is difficult to see the possibility of having more than enough. In my life it seemed that I could never have enough money. This made “more than enough” a mission impossible. It was during this period of my life that I found a book by Catherine Ponder titled
Open Your Mind to Receive.
W
HEN YOU HAVE A PAYCHECK-TO-PAYCHECK MENTALITY, IT IS DIFFICULT TO SEE THE POSSIBILITY OF HAVING MORE THAN ENOUGH
.
H
AVING WHAT YOU NEED AND DESIRE IS NOT A REWARD FOR WHAT YOU DO. INSTEAD, IT IS A FUNCTION OF HOW YOU THINK AND WHAT YOU BELIEVE
.
I had never considered money, wealth, prosperity, or abundance to be a function of receiving. What I learned as a child was that you must work hard to get money, and when you do get it, you have to make it last in order to have enough. Catherine Ponder introduced me to a new way of thinking. Having what you need and desire is not a reward for what you do. Instead, it is a function of how you think and what you believe. The universe of life responds to our dominant thoughts. Ponder acknowledged that most people think of money as a thing—a thing you must work hard to get. In the pages of her book I discovered that the positive energy of what we
desire
is far more productive and attractive than the fear-based, often negative energy of what we
need
or want. I also learned that when we have unforgiving thoughts about anyone or anything, it blocks the positive flow of good into our lives. It was clear. Money is a good thing, and I was preventing it from flowing through my life. The patterns I learned as a child was one level of prevention. All the people I was still angry with were another.
W
HEN WE HAVE UNFORGIVING THOUGHTS ABOUT ANYONE OR ANYTHING, IT BLOCKS THE POSITIVE FLOW OF GOOD INTO OUR LIVES
.
If it meant that my grandson would get a good education, I was willing to consider forgiving some people. If it meant that I could pay all of the bills and still have something left over, I would give anything a try. If forgiving my parents, the man who violated me, the people who had abandoned me, and the people who just didn’t like me meant I could go to bed at night, sleep peacefully, and awaken the next morning without the fear that someone was going to show up at my door to take something away or cut something off, I would do anything.
Ponder said to write down what I wanted and to forgive myself for not having it. She said to speak words of forgiveness until I believed them. She said to stop trying to control how the money would come and instead give thanks that what I desired was mine for the asking. It was hard to believe that money could come to me without my doing anything to make that happen—but it did. It was even more difficult for me to adjust my mind to accept that by forgiving the people who had failed to provide me with what I needed and wanted I would receive all that I desired—but I did. By no means was it easy to adjust, change, or live beyond my childhood money patterns and all the myths I had learned about money; however, as Ponder wrote: “There is a healing power to releasing what was that allows you to receive what is and will always be—more than enough.”
D
AILY
F
ORGIVENESS
P
ROCESS
R
EMINDERS
For a more detailed explanation of the
Daily Forgiveness Process Guidelines
,