Step 1 - 12 Steps of Forgiveness

Rick: This is what I do with my feelings. Thought you might be interested. :-)

Step One - RECOGNIZE THE FEELING!
We begin this journey together by recognizing the fear, the sadness, the pain, the hurt, the contraction, the envy, the anger, the feelings of separation. We dont seek to justify these feelings, nor do we condemn them. We just allow ourselves to be aware that they are there. The following process can help us be with our feelings without running away from them (denying them) or externalizing them (projecting them). We recognize the feeling We do not justify or condemn what we are feeling We accept the feeling and give ourselves permission to feel it We allow the feeling to speak to us We honor it as an inner communication We take responsibility for the feeling e.g. "I feel hurt, angry, sad, etc." We refuse any inclination to make anyone else responsible for what we feel. We stay with the feeling. We refuse to intellectualize the feeling. It is not important to know "why" we feel the way we do As we stay with the feeling, we become aware that we are not being very loving right now, toward ourselves or others We allow this message to sink in, staying with the feeling until it begins to shift It is important to realize that: Every negative feeling stems from the perception of a lack of love. Ultimately, that love must be supplied from within. That is why we don't want to move outside of ourselves. We don't want to move away from our feeling, but into it...... We want to face the fact that we want love and we don't feel loved or loving... We want to be with that emptiness, that apparent lack
Being with that emptiness helps us get behind it. It helps us understand or stand under it. We can' embrace love until we learn to be with our fear and our feelings of separation. We have to come to terms with where we are emotionally.
The source of love is not shallow! It goes down deep in the heart, as deep as deep as our suffering is. Divine Mother hides in the black pit. We have to go into that pit to find Her. We have to go thru our fear, our anger and our shame to feel Her unconditional love for us. That is our decent. It is one-half of our journey. We CANT embrace Love until we learn to be with our fear and our feelings of separation. We have to come to terms with where we are emotionally! To pretend not to be upset when we are upset is balderdash. Yet, we do it all the time. Why is it so hard for me to admit to myself or to you that I am upset, that in this moment I am overwhelmed by fear? Do I think that I am the only one who has such an experience? Apparently I do. Apparently you do. Apparently we are both trying to impress each other, when what we really need is a good hug. One of us just has to have the guts to say: "I feel really scared right now" And the other one will probably say "me too." So, it's always hard to release each other from the denial. ILLLUSION IS BUILT OUT OF DENIAL...Its a foundation poured on quicksand. It starts with a simple misperception and ends with a complex one. So, we agree to feel the fear, because the denial of our own fear is where illusion gets its foothold. All the inequities of the world stem from the denial in our minds. Feeling our fear and acknowledging it is our moment of supreme equality with all our brothers and sisters. It is the moment when we are all INNOCENT, ALL FREE TO CHOOSE, ALL ROOTING FOR EACH OTHER. The moment is brought to us continually. We understand that every choice is a choice between love and fear, but we can't begin to ACCESS OUR LOVE UNTIL WE ACKNOWLEDGE OUR FEAR...In this step, we remove the first barrier to love's presence...THAT BARRIER IS NOT FEAR. IT IS DENIAL OF FEAR...The first step to forgiveness is to give ourselves permission to be afraid and to feel all of our feelings. We cannot move through our fear if we are afraid to experience it!!!!! That is the moment that we take up the cross and walk up the hill, as our elder brother did....Feeling the fear, we walk through it, with love calling us, a gentle promise in the skies of early morning!