Showing Up To Life
740 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★ - 7 ratingsA daily podcast for people who want to naturally reduce stress in their bodies and optimize themselves to THRIVE in their lives, and not merely survive.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
EP 339: The Generational Cycle of Fear And Stress (And How to Break It)
September 15, 2020 01:17 - 27 minutes - 25 MBWhen we experience stress in our bodies, it is helpful - and accurate - to call it the stress response. This is because our bodies are RESPONDING to something. On the positive side of stress, we’re responding to excitement. On the negative side, we’re responding to fear. This distress is dangerous enough for us as people - our physical, mental, and emotional health suffers from chronic distress - but it’s even more dangerous for our kids! Even when we think we’re putting on a happy face...
EP 338: Using Mindfulness to Heal from Loss and Grief
September 12, 2020 04:28 - 29 minutes - 27.6 MBHello, friends. Given today’s date, I wanted to share some thoughts and information on how mindfulness can help us process, cope with, and ultimately heal from loss. Whether loss of loved ones, loss of a job, loss of material possessions, or loss of simple pleasures, loss is part of life. And so is the grief that arises from it. For most of us, the instinct is to avoid the feelings of this grief. Of course, this is understandable. Because it hurts. But when we try to distract ourselves...
EP 337: Pausing And Responding
September 11, 2020 01:24 - 21 minutes - 19.9 MBIn almost every circumstance in parenting, we don’t need to immediately react to what our kids might have done. In fact, reaction will almost ALWAYS end up causing more problems than it solves. And it will create emotions of fear, guilt, and shame that will prevent us all from learning and growing through our experience. It will also push our children away from us. On the other hand, pausing for a moment, a minute, or even an hour, allows us to investigate and challenge our thoughts, emo...
Ep 336: The Trouble with Operating from Fear
September 10, 2020 01:27 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBFear is what we call a negative emotion. In fact, it is the root of ALL negative emotions we can possibly feel. But negative, in this context, doesn’t mean ‘BAD’! In fact, fear is very beneficial to us in our lives. Like when we reach into a hot oven, fear is what reminds us to wear oven mitts. Fear makes us look both ways before crossing a street. Where fear becomes problematic for us, is when we operate from the level of fear. When we allow fear to be automatic and we assume the wor...
EP 335: Empathic Resonance And It's Impact on Trust And Our Relationships
September 09, 2020 02:24 - 22 minutes - 21 MBWhy is it important to ‘know’ our emotions? When we experience each other as human beings - whether in business or social settings, or in the parent/child or spousal relationship - there are two different ways we experience each other: We have our cognitive experience, what we understand, our opinions, or discernment, etc. And then we have our limbic experience. That is to say, our emotional and empathic experience of one another. This limbic level of our experience creates what is calle...
EP 334: Fear, Love, And Showing Up to Our Lives
September 07, 2020 21:44 - 15 minutes - 14 MBRight now, what emotion is motivating you? We are always motivated by SOME emotion. We’re either motivated towards something we desire. Or we’re motivated away from something we fear. That means that right now, and in every moment of every day, we are motivated by either love or fear. And because our thoughts, emotions, and sensations work in a cycle that creates its own momentum, when we operate from fear, we tend to stay in a negative emotional cycle. And when we operate from love, w...
EP 333: Who Is Breathing?
September 05, 2020 01:13 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MB‘Who is breathing?’ This is an important and helpful question we can ask ourselves. Of course, it is your body that’s breathing, and if it stops there will be some major problems. But are you really in control of your breathing? If you are, then see how long you can stop breathing before your body forces it to start again. 😁 And what about your thoughts and emotions? Are YOU in control of them? Or do they just happen on their own? As we ponder these important questions, we can learn a...
EP 332: The True Benefit of Non-Judging Awareness
September 03, 2020 22:56 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MBAs we sit in the stillness of our meditation practice, even for a few minutes a day, we develop a few extremely beneficial skills. The skill of focus leads to a reduction in stress and anxiety. The skill of compassion leads to positive and empathic interpersonal communications. But perhaps most beneficial of all, the skill of bringing non-judging awareness to our experiences allows us to very clearly see the motivation behind our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. And in this v...
EP 331: Cultivating Acceptance through Impermanence
September 02, 2020 23:06 - 19 minutes - 18.5 MBThe most accessible path to presence is acceptance. When we accept what is happening, right now, we stay free from the emotional overwhelm that keeps us from being present. But how do we train ourselves in acceptance? We do that by building the mental habit of recognizing impermanence. Virtually anything we experience in life is impermanent, externally, and internally. A traffic jam doesn’t last forever. Nor does that bad cold. Even stones are slowly decaying and won’t be around forever...
EP 330: Learning And Growing through Our Experiences
September 02, 2020 01:05 - 14 minutes - 13.8 MB“Life Is The Curriculum” - Jon Kabat-Zinn. This is a quote I use a lot and I think it’s worthy of every repetition. Life is CONSTANTLY offering us opportunities to become who we want to be. Maybe for you, that’s being a parent who is connected to your kids. Or it’s being a more attentive spouse or friend. Or maybe for you, it’s about being a more contributive member of society. Our experiences can lead us to all these things, but only if we’re present enough to see the lessons. Often,...
EP 329: Setting Up A Daily Meditation Practice
August 31, 2020 22:57 - 20 minutes - 19 MBA daily meditation practice is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your physical, mental, and emotional health. But the key is to look at it as a daily PRACTICE. Think of it as something you’re doing to build a skill. Because you are. In today’s video, I talk about the benefits of this skill-building practice, why it really helps to do it first thing in the morning (before you pick up your phone!), and how it helps to have someone else along the journey with you. If you hav...
EP 328: How to Develop The Habit of Mindfulness
August 29, 2020 02:06 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBIt is said that as much as 95% of our behavior is habitual. This means that most of what we do is done without our attention. Our bodies are doing it without our minds. Driving your car, eating, showering, brushing your teeth are just a handful of the most popular of habitual behavior. So when you’re doing these things without thinking about them, what ARE you thinking about? Well, because our human brains are wired for survival, you’re very likely thinking about something that causes y...
EP 327: Understanding The Impact of Your Presence
August 28, 2020 01:11 - 16 minutes - 15.7 MBBefore we ever open our mouths or make a single physical gesture, we’re already impacting those around us. This impact comes from our level of PRESENCE. When you get off a zoom call and head into the living room to check on the kids, you may be physically present with them. But are you TRULY present? Or is your mind still on that call, trying to resolve the emotions it brought up? Well, your kids can tell. When they sense your presence, they feel safe and they feel like they matter. T...
EP 326: The Vital Skill of Mindful Communication
August 26, 2020 22:48 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MBIn any area of our lives - as parents or children, employer or employee, or in the most anonymous interactions in our daily lives - we are communicating. Communication is how we get what we need and request what we desire. It is how we express our love. So it stands to reason that of all the applications of mindfulness practices, mindful communication could be the most vital. The very word communication is derived from the word commune - to come together. As we bring non judging awarene...
EP 325: Letting Life Be Our Teacher
August 26, 2020 00:53 - 15 minutes - 14.6 MB‘Life is the curriculum’ - Jon Kabat-Zinn What this great teacher is telling us with these wise words is that throughout our lives we will be presented with situations that, while on their face are very challenging, are really opportunities to learn about ourselves. And of course, to practice being present, accepting, and compassionate. In today’s video, I tell a story about one such opportunity presented to me in an interaction with my 9-year-old son. This experience gave me the opportu...
EP 324: How to See (And Regulate) The Cycle And Momentum of Our Emotions
August 24, 2020 21:26 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBEmotional regulation is one of the most valuable skills we can possess. Whether in parenting, in our work, in our social lives, or in our daily, anonymous interactions with others, emotional regulation can mean the difference between a moment of discomfort and an action that can cause permanent damage to a relationship. And this skill starts with non judging awareness. As we practice simply being present with our thoughts, emotions, and sensations, we develop a clear and accurate view of ...
EP 323: Non Judging Awareness For The Win!
August 21, 2020 21:38 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBMost of us attach our happiness to external experiences. When we have positive experiences - we receive a compliment, things go well at work, we get a new gadget - we feel happy. But when we have negative experiences - a client cancels a project, our kids challenge our patience, our car breaks down - we feel sadness or depression. When we practice non-judging awareness, we learn to accept external and internal experiences without comparison and this allows us to maintain inner happiness e...
EP 322: How to Develop 360º of Compassion (And Why It's So Beneficial to Do So)
August 20, 2020 22:01 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBWhen we see someone else suffering, and we connect to them through that suffering, realizing they are a human being just like we are, most of us find it very easy to offer kindness to that person. This is compassion. And there is abundant evidence in hard-nosed research that shows compassion is effective in stress reduction as well as overall emotional, physical, and mental well being. But compassion, like our empathic resonance and like our mind itself, is a cyclical, reciprocal process....
EP 321: Practicing Non Judging through Compassion
August 19, 2020 23:04 - 16 minutes - 15.2 MBAs we judge ourselves, the others in our lives, or even the situations that life throws at us from time to time, we wind up in mental states that cause us emotional suffering. And this emotional suffering prevents us from being present with our lives. In other words, the emotional suffering prevents you from showing up with all our dynamic creativity that makes you who you really are. And I have some great news for you! It’s very simple to mitigate and neutralize the judging that leads t...
EP 320: The True Benefits of Non-Judging Awareness
August 19, 2020 00:12 - 21 minutes - 20.1 MBAs human beings, we have a strong tendency to judge and form expectations for our experiences. We all do it! We EXPECT to get to work without traffic. We EXPECT to not have a flat tire. We EXPECT that our pen won’t run out of ink. And when we live with these expectations, we set ourselves up for the acts of clinging and aversion. We cling to the idea that our pen SHOULD work. And we don’t accept that our tire is flat when we’re leaving for work in the morning. And in this clinging an...
EP 319: The Health Impacts of Chronic Stress
August 17, 2020 23:47 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBI get to talk to a lot of people about stress. And one of the most common things I hear people say is that stress is just ‘part of life’... or ‘unavoidable.’ I can remember a time when I felt this way too. I felt that stress motivated me. It made me who I was. But the truth that I learned the hard way is that chronic stress (something that 77% of American adults suffer) carries some very serious health risks. And in addition to the direct health risks - hypertension, heart arrhythmia, ...
EP 318: How to Elevate Your Energy, and Benefit You And Those Around You
August 15, 2020 01:23 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBAs we become more aware of the cycle of thoughts>emotions>sensations that cause (or relieve) the stress response in our bodies, we gain the power to break the cycle. And as we exercise this power, we change a crucial aspect of our personal interaction with others: our empathic resonance. Over the past few decades, neuroscience has caught up with what ancient contemplative practices have held for millennia: that we are connected through our energy to one another. So when you walk into your...
EP 317: How to Develop Emotional Intelligence And Self Regulation
August 13, 2020 22:49 - 21 minutes - 20 MBEverything we experience - internal concerns, memories, and reactions, AND external events - will be experienced in three ways: In our bodies. In our emotions. In our thoughts. And bringing awareness to these aspects of our experiences is to practice mindfulness. Of course, practicing mindfulness has been shown, unambiguously, to benefit many areas of our physical, emotional, and mental well being. Check out the audio for a really simple practice you can do to develop the skills of min...
EP 316: Seeing Our Thoughts
August 12, 2020 23:43 - 20 minutes - 19.3 MBAs we step back from the flow of our thoughts and emotions, we give ourselves a little space in which we can choose the response that benefits ourselves and those around us. This is in contrast to the ‘usual’ way we react to the experiences of our lives. Formal meditation - stopping what we’re doing and allowing ourselves to adopt a stillness in which we can develop a gentle, non-judging awareness of our internal experiences - is enormously helpful in developing this skill. But many of us...
EP 315: How to Practice Acceptance And Letting Go (And Why These Practices Are So Beneficial)
August 11, 2020 21:33 - 16 minutes - 15.1 MBAs we learn to dwell in the present and pay attention to what IS, as opposed to what MIGHT BE or what COULD HAVE BEEN, we develop a very important skill. Our stress comes from the emotion of fear - fear of an undesired outcome, or fear resulting from the shame of past mistakes or missed opportunities. As we practice paying attention to NOW, and doing so without judgment, we develop the skill of accepting (for now) the things we don’t want and letting go of the obsessive clinging to the thi...
EP 314: Focusing on What IS
August 10, 2020 23:42 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBBecause most of us live in relative safety, without constant physical threats, our stress is mostly misguided, if you will. The stress response of our bodies is designed to help us survive a physical threat. But most of us feel stress when we’re sitting in our safe home, or our safe car, or our safe office; far from any kind of physical threat. That’s because the stress we feel is generated by our thinking. Check out the audio for a great micro practice to help break the cycle of thought...
EP 313: The Benefit of Forgiveness (It Might Not Be What You Think)
August 07, 2020 21:31 - 16 minutes - 15.4 MBSince I was all about apologies yesterday - bringing mindfulness to the act of apologizing and holding in empathic awareness to the emotions of the person receiving the apology - I thought it would make sense to talk today about forgiveness. In my opinion, there are few things less understood or appreciated in our culture than forgiveness. Most people consider it a sign of weakness. Or an act of acquiescence, or absolution. In fact, forgiveness is one of the strongest and most courageous...
EP 312: By Special Request - Mindful Apologies
August 06, 2020 22:10 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MBToday’s post comes from another request, and I’m thrilled about it!!! Cindy, my client, friend, and YouTube subscriber asked me to create a video that talks about how mindfulness can help with the art of apology. Specifically, Cindy wants to know how mindfulness can help us apologize in a way that makes the person to whom we’re apologizing feel felt and heard. And I think it’s an excellent question because most of us have a tendency to apologize AND justify our words or behavior in the sa...
EP 311: Self Compassion Illustrated
August 05, 2020 22:24 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MBAs a teacher and practitioner of mindfulness AND heartfulness, compassion is very important to me. And while I see compassion as a 360° intention, abundant research is showing self compassion, specifically, to be associated with many aspects of psychological health. Increased happiness, life satisfaction, curiosity, and optimism, and decreased anxiety, depression, rumination, isolation, and eating disorders are topped by what I feel is the most important benefit of all: emotional resilienc...
EP 310: Seeing Our Emotional Triggers
August 04, 2020 22:38 - 4 minutes - 4.1 MBAs we gain a vivid image of our emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations, as happens through meditation practice, we get to see the most important thing of all: emotional triggers. When we develop self awareness through these daily practices, we gain the ability to see our triggers before they’re upon us. This allows us to avoid the reactivity that usually results in saying or doing something we later regret. And when we avoid these actions, we avoid the feelings of shake that usually ...
EP 309: Meditation: The Practice of Non Doing
August 03, 2020 23:55 - 13 minutes - 12.7 MBAs my tee shirt says, meditation is not what you think. Really, meditation is about unplugging from the rush of thoughts and emotions that result from the daily hustle and bustle. I love to explain it using the metaphor of a snow globe: When we shake a snow globe, the little flakes swirl all around and make it impossible to see the scene inside. But if we place the snow globe down for a few minutes, all those flakes settle to the bottom and reveal a vivid scene. Well, our minds - with a...
EP 308: Mirror Neurons, Empathic Resonance, And Self Compassion
July 28, 2020 21:21 - 14 minutes - 13.8 MBMirror Neurons and Empathic Resonance are the scientific basis for empathy and compassion. When we see someone suffering - like watching someone stun their toe - the neurons in our brains are activated as though we stubbed our own toe. As we hold this energetic connection in our conscious awareness, we open ourselves to the benefit of the vitally important quality of self compassion. Because others - our kids, our friends, and everyone else with whom we come into contact- feel our pleasur...
EP 307: Mindfulness and Emotional Regulation
July 27, 2020 23:20 - 12 minutes - 12 MBThe core benefit of mindfulness - the practice of paying attention to our unfolding experience without judgment - is the ability to regulate our emotions. The emotions start in the body and enter the brain from the bottom up. Mindfulness helps to strengthen the top-level, executive functioning of our brain, resulting in a top-down regulation and a vertical integration. The result is the ability to clearly see the emotions we feel while inhibiting our automatic reactions to them. ...
EP 306: Mindfulness And Addiction
July 24, 2020 23:27 - 21 minutes - 19.5 MBOne of my YouTube subscribers asked me the other day to create a video that shows how mindfulness can help address addiction. I was delighted at the request, especially since it includes a topic so near and important to me: by this time next month, I’ll be 9 years clean and sober. ❤️ I also appreciate the request because mindfulness practices ABSOLUTELY help with overcoming addiction and I’m happy to explain how. I posted a very in depth video on YouTube, and go into the broad strokes her...
EP 305: The Value of Connection (And What It Means for Compassion Practices)
July 23, 2020 20:32 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBI hope that through all these posts and videos I’ve been able to convince you of the value of compassion - for ourselves AND for others. So much recent research has shown the benefits of compassion on our physical, mental, and emotional well being. Stress reduction, resilience, and a sense of fulfillment are just the start of a very long list of these benefits. One really important aspect of compassion - an aspect important to developing compassion and also an important result of compassi...
EP 304: The Many Benefits of Compassion (And The Surprisingly Simple Ways You Can Develop It)
July 23, 2020 00:12 - 15 minutes - 14.5 MBCompassion is much more than just being nice to people. In fact, the subject is so deep there is abundant research that shows it to be foundational to our well being, fulfillment, and, ultimately, our success in every area of our lives. It is also evident from this abundant research that compassion can be seen in 365° In other words, practicing compassion for others MEANS practicing compassion for ourselves. https://youtu.be/fJCtTWrK99Q If you’d like to learn some simple, yet profoundly...
EP 303: What Happens When We Pay Attention to The Positive Experiences of Our Lives?
July 22, 2020 00:07 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBOf all the many implicit biases that impact our moment to moment experience as Human Beings, one of the most powerful is the negativity bias. The negativity bias makes us automatically pay attention to the negative aspects of our experiences over the positive aspects of our experience. The thing is, as neuroscientists tell us, where attention goes, energy flows. So when we succumb to the negativity bias and pay more attention to the negative aspects of our lives, we start to feel that our...
EP 302: The Science of Habit (And Mindfulness Practices)
July 21, 2020 03:07 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MB“Whatever a person frequently thinks and reflects on, that will become the inclination of their mind.” - Gautama Buddha The Buddha wrote these words over 2500 years ago, and sometime around 1995, neuroscientists finally agreed with him. What is described in this quote is the quality of the brain that neuroscientists call neuroplasticity - how the brain’s synaptic connections and neural anatomy are plastic, or moldable. Neuroplasticity is the basis of habit and is also the reason that afte...
EP 301: The Benefit of Turning Towards Discomfort
July 17, 2020 23:46 - 17 minutes - 16.2 MBAs we develop the skill of mindfulness - the ability to experience our lives on a moment-to-moment basis without judgment- the physical, emotional, and mental benefits are truly amazing. (And very well studied and documented, btw) One of the key aspects to this practice is non-judgment, which is to say an open and compassionate curiosity about our unfolding experiences. And a great way to practice this, in any time of your day, is to practice leaning into discomfort. Our suffering often c...
EP 300: The Value of Kindness
July 16, 2020 20:44 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBAs human beings, we are always motivated by our emotions. We are motivated towards something we love or we are motivated away from something we fear. And because of the way our brains are wired for survival, the negative emotions have an overwhelming advantage. In fact, the psychologist Barbara Fredrickson and her colleagues have found the ratio of negative to positive emotions we typically feel to be 3:1. And this is why it is so powerful and important, as we practice moment to moment, ...
EP 299: How to Practice Mindfully Arriving
July 15, 2020 21:37 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MBAnother very available opportunity to practice mindfulness that will help develop it as a habit is consciously arriving. In the video today I give the example of arriving at a grocery store, but you can literally do this ANY time you arrive anywhere. Check it out and let me know how it feels.
EP 298: Practicing The Pause (And Why It's So Helpful)
July 14, 2020 23:22 - 18 minutes - 17.5 MBWhen we find ourselves regretting our actions and wishing we could take back something that’s happened, it’s almost always because we REACTED to, as opposed to having RESPONDED to an experience. And one of the most amazing results of Mindfulness practices is the cultivation or the habit of RESPONSE. Any time we find ourselves reacting to something, we’re being driven by our implicit biases and memories. Or we’re driven by the emotions associated with our past trauma. Whatever the driving...
EP 297: The 4 Most Common Meditation Myths... BUSTED
July 13, 2020 23:13 - 15 minutes - 14.2 MBWhen I tell someone that I help people reduce stress and reactivity, almost everyone says: “I NEED THAT!!!” This is no surprise, given that over 77% of American adults experience chronic, daily stress, and that most people understand the damage chronic stress causes one’s health and happiness. But when I go on to say that I accomplish stress reduction through mindfulness and meditation practices, I hear all kinds of reasons it won’t work for them. “I have too many thoughts.” “I can’t sit...
EP 296: The Vital Importance of Emotional Regulation And How You Can Develop It
July 10, 2020 23:17 - 14 minutes - 13.9 MBOnce we adjust for training, experience, education, and passion, the most important indicator of success is our level of emotional regulation. Our emotions and thoughts - self judgment, fear, shame, anger, resentment, etc - can derail us from our goals and aspirations more than anything else can. So the ability to regulate these emotions and let go of the thoughts that give them energy becomes our most vital skill. This is why teaching children these skills is one of the most powerful thi...
EP 295: Breaking The Cycle of Generational Trauma with Mindful Parenting
July 09, 2020 21:36 - 14 minutes - 13.3 MBWe’ve all heard of generational trauma, right? One example is that almost every person in an abusive relationship as an adult will be found to have been abused on some level as a young child. This has to do with how we develop as young children - in the first seven years of our lives, we are soaking up the way our caregivers and other people in our lives interact with us and with each other. This information becomes our world view; our programming, if you will. The experiences we have as...
EP 294: A Mindful Parent Is Compassionately Curious (And Psychologists All Say This Is A Good Thing)
July 09, 2020 00:50 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MBMindful parenting is based on connection and attachment between the parent and the child(ren). And this connection comes through a degree of presence, acceptance, and compassion. When I say acceptance, I don’t mean that you’re not going to get your children to clean their rooms, or eat their vegetables, or go to bed at a reasonable hour. When I say accept these behaviors in your children, I mean that you allow yourself to see past the behavior itself and maintain a deeper emotional attach...
EP 293: Mindful Parenting with Art Burns Coaching
July 07, 2020 22:26 - 15 minutes - 14.2 MBWhen I teach mindful parenting, the focus is not so much on seeking the ‘right’ techniques of parenting, but more on becoming present and attuned to your kids. We place the emphasis on the long term development of the child and the long term relationship between parent and child, rather than the short term behavior of the child. Not only is this approach widely supported by research in psychology and neurobiology, but it also falls in line with the natural dynamic of growth and personality...
EP 292: How to Anchor The Wandering Mind (And Why It's Beneficial to Do So)
July 07, 2020 04:04 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MBAlmost all the stress we experience in modern society comes from our thoughts. And because of how many thoughts we, as humans, have every day - over 60,000 - most of us experience stress on a chronic level. Not only does this chronic stress pose serious risks to our health, it also prevents us from showing up to our lives as our authentic selves with all our potential. The root of these stress inducing thoughts is our wandering mind. Any time we’re doing something that doesn’t require ou...
EP 291: How to Practice Compassion (And The Many Reasons You Might Want To)
July 04, 2020 04:53 - 15 minutes - 14.7 MB“I wish you well.” If you watch my videos, listen to my podcast, or receive emails from me, you hear me say “I wish you well.” It is sincere and heartfelt. But it’s also a practice for me. In contemplative work, we do two different types of practice: Formal practice - sitting in posture and meditating. Informal practice - adding the practice to our daily activities. For me, sending an email or making a video is a perfect opportunity for this informal practice. Before hitting send, I ...
EP 290: The Physical and Emotional Benefits of Forgiveness
July 03, 2020 01:58 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBMost people, understandably, view forgiveness as a form of weakness. Or they equate forgiveness with granting license to someone to harm us in some way. But the reality is that forgiveness is the opposite of weakness and it has nothing to do with another person's actions. In fact, forgiveness is an act of self-compassion. It is a means of releasing ourselves of the burden of resentment, anger, or vengeance we feel for another person as a result of something that has happened in the past....