Forgive Yourself and Start Fresh
by Mary Hayes Grieco

Lesson 7: Your Fearless Inventory of negative self issues – Prepare to free your heart

To prepare for this lesson, do the short written version of The Daily Harmony Exercise (Lesson Four>>) and

Listen to Mary tell a story about forgiving herself (5:37)>>

My Fearless Inventory of Negative Self Issues

Let’s be brave now, and methodical, about naming your negative self issues.
Prepare to free your heart! Chances are good that your list isn’t much worse than anyone else’s. You might feel heavy and daunted for a few moments, but that won’t last – keep going. You have time. You are going to tackle a few of these things over the next few weeks (and feel AMAZINGLY lighter!) and you have the rest of the year or the rest of your life to make it through the whole list.

Get a notebook if you don’t have one already, and start your list.

I find that putting things on a list, as a task that is do-able when you are ready to do it, makes you feel more in charge of yourself. It’s a finite list, and you are healing some finite pain, with your infinite resources. No problem. Remember, you and your soul are “the boss of you,” and bigger than your issues. And you are already worthy. You’re just making room for some more goodness, one issue at a time. Below is a suggested outline to get you started, and some further reading to do if you want some encouragement. Go forth.

In this course, we will soon tackle three of your self-issues, one at a time.
Use the worksheet in Materials called “My Self Forgiveness Issues”.

Personality Problems – weakness, excess, annoying traits and habits
(Ex. I’m too heavy and I binge on cookies. I’m envious of someone and constantly compare myself to others. I can’t stop picking on someone I love. Etc.)

Mistakes, Failures, Unfortunate Life Situations
(I got into an unhealthy relationship. I’m broke and in debt. I’m going through a messy divorce and I feel resentful and guilty. I am still unemployed and losing my confidence. I don’t like where I live. I am a caregiver of someone and I feel like life is passing me by.)

“Falling Short” of who I want to be; failing to live my potential
I am working in a job that bores me. I want to be self employed but I’m too afraid to be on my own. I am single and I long to be with a soul mate. I want to create wealth but am getting nowhere.

Do a quick “brain dump” and write down all of the self issues you can think of that bother you, in each of those categories.

Ask your intuition to highlight the three self issues that are the ones to release now in order to move forward. You may know what they are right away, or you may need to walk away from this assignment and sleep on it. For a well-rounded approach, I suggest you do one from each section. But you can do whatever three feel right to you.

MY THREE ISSUES

Note in your Journal:

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

So, now let it rest. Go do something that will please you and lighten your mood for the rest of the day. This will be good, so don’t spend the rest of the day feeling bad.

Promise?