Hey, it’s Amy Newmark with your Chicken Soup for the Soul and I’m pleased to share new stories with you from Chicken Soup for the Soul: Let It Go, which is our latest best-selling self-help book. I didn’t really understand the power of forgiveness to change my life until I started doing this editor-in-chief job at Chicken Soup for the Soul 18 years ago. I always thought that the word “forgiveness” meant that you were excusing the person who hurt you, saying that it was okay. But it turns out that “forgiveness” doesn’t mean that. What it actually means is that you have decided not to keep reliving all the negative feelings associated with whatever bad thing happened to you. You acknowledge that the bad thing happened, but you decide to stop having those same negative feelings over and over again. Because if you let the bad thing replay over and over in your mind, you’re letting it – or the person that did it – occupy space in your mind. And that’s not cool. You need to take back that space in your mind for yourself, not let someone else control it.

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