Forgiveness has been top of mind for me these days. With all that is going on around us, I realize that forgiveness might be the first step to healing our world. And as I start to see my patients in the office after the new year, I realize that forgiveness is essential to their practice as well.

So many of my patients are coming in this week distressed and downtrodden about holiday weight gain. So upset, that they don’t recognize that this is just a temporary moment in time.

And it got me thinking. Why are we so damned hard on ourselves? Maybe it is “our fault” if fault means that we are imperfect. If fault means that you don’t do what you are supposed to do all the time. If fault means that you are not always on, always perfect, always always always.

SO let me ask you, who do you know who is always on their game? Who is always perfect?

No one!

So let’s assume that you are a mere mortal, imperfect just like the rest of us, so now what?

You have 2 choices and 2 choices only. You can beat yourself up for letting life get in the way, for gaining the weight, for not making yourself or your health a priority in which case you are so busy hating on yourself, you have no bandwidth left to actually do something about it.

OR you can offer yourself forgiveness.

On this week’s HealthBite, I guide you thru a forgiveness meditation. This is such a profound practice and has profound mental and physical benefits which include:

• Allowing you to make peace with yourself

• Facilitating a feeling of connection rather than isolation

• Allowing for the emotional resilience that is required to make lasting and effective change

All of which can be deeply healing.

Remember that we are all imperfect, that we all have moments, or even prolong periods of time when we act in a way that is or was not in our best interest. But, when we become aware we have an opportunity to do things differently. And we will only be able to do so if we give ourselves the chance to change, to grow and to evolve with an open heart and an open mind. This is not only the kind thing to do, but it is the effective thing to do.

Finally, I wanted to share some really exciting news! After being asked for years and years and years to offer my own personal event and I am finally doing it!