No matter who you are, we all have things in our past that we regret. No matter how much you beat yourself up about the past, nothing will change it. The more you stay stuck in the past, the more you keep yourself hostage and block yourself from what can be. Yes, you’ve made mistakes but that doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person. What you’ve done doesn’t define who you are. There comes a time when you HAVE to set yourself free from your self-imposed prison. It’s normal and human to make mistakes. View those mistakes as a learning opportunity. Everything you’ve experienced had to happen in order for you to become the person you are today. How do you release the past?

1) Make the decision to set yourself free.

2) Acknowledge what you did, take full responsibility and make amends.

3) Own and embrace your feelings (guilt, shame, hurt). You keep yourself stuck when you don’t acknowledge your feelings. When you give yourself permission to feel those feelings, they dissolve.

4) Learn the lessons. What’s most important is for you to grow and evolve. All lessons are repeated until fully learned.

5) Lastly, FORGIVE YOURSELF.