#37 FORGET AND FORGIVE
Sweet woman, can I ask you something from my heart to yours?
Do you ever feel like your past has its hands wrapped around your throat, whispering lies about who you are? Do those old wounds still ache in quiet moments, making you believe that what happened to you is who you are?
I want to wrap you in the biggest, warmest hug right now and tell you something I wish someone had told me years ago: You are not your past. You are not what happened to you. You are not broken. You are not a victim of your past and your life circumstances.
I know what it feels like to wake up some mornings and feel like those old traumas are sitting on your chest, making it hard to breathe. I know the exhaustion that comes from carrying pain that was never yours to hold in the first place. And I know how scary it feels to even imagine letting it go—because sometimes our pain feels like the only thing that makes us real.
But here's what I've learned on my own bumby, beautiful journey: Forgiveness isn't about pretending it didn't happen or saying it was okay. It's about choosing your freedom over your pain. It's about recognizing that you have the power—yes, you, beautiful human—to write a new story starting right now.
I'm not going to lie to you and say it's easy. Healing takes courage that sometimes you'll have to borrow from tomorrow's version of yourself. It takes the kind of self-love that feels foreign at first. It means looking at those tender, hurt parts of yourself with the same gentleness you'd show a scared child.
It takes understanding and selflove to let go of the childhood and youth experiences that hurt you and shaped you. But everything is possible. We CAN forget the pain and have it integrated in our body, mind and spirit and still have the past – but not be defined by it. Remember this.
My deepest hope through The Lonely Queers and especially through this episode is to inspire you, and to remind you that you deserve to live free. Not just surviving, but truly alive.
You deserve joy that isn't borrowed. Peace that isn't temporary. Love that includes loving yourself. You are braver than you believe and more loved than you know.
Thank you for trusting me with your time, your ears, and your precious heart.
Thanks for listening.
//ASH
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