“I think of the trees and how simply they let go…” Hafiz
One of the challenges of relationships is the necessity of being quick to forgive. Some of us have more difficulty with this then others. It is sometimes helpful to notice what our beliefs are about others and ourselves in this regard. Do we believe that humans make mistakes, are sometimes thoughtless or do we believe that people should be more perfect? Do we believe that we deserve to always be treated as we want to be treated? These different beliefs will cause us to have different reactions inside. Other tendencies such as taking things personally when others are reacting can cause us to feel more offended then others. This means that a comment made in passing by someone is taken as meant for us and we feel hurt, offended and angered. Our pack sack begins to get bigger and we become more embittered and less free to respond with our best self.
Related to this, I often meet clients who are unable to trust people. It is often because of past hurts they feel unable to let go of. They feel a sense of betrayal by others. Their memories that they often rehearse are emotionally loaded. 
They They continue to suffer even though these events occurred many years ago. Again, a reminder that what we focus on gets amplified. When we focus on our negative experiences in order to confirm our negative beliefs about people it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I like the book, “Don’t sweat the small stuff”. It challenges us to do as Hafiz suggests and to simply let go. We often do not think about the consequences of dwelling on slights and the suffering it causes us, not the other person. I am not talking about the “big stuff” here like traumatic events. I am talking about all the human experiences we go through that we could let go of, if we made that choice. Examine your beliefs- could they do with an update? Sometimes they come from our childhood of origin and are no longer useful to the way we want to live and be in the world today. Let go – make room for more joy! Journal your way through this.
