Like Mahatma Ghandi said, ‘The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strength.’

It’s not easy to forgive because our egos want to control situations and people but the best thing we can do others and ourselves for hurting one another, is to forgive. It doesn’t mean that we treat those who hurt us like best friends. It just means that we release the pain, drama and negativity that we have allowed to consume us.

Here are 9 reasons I choose to forgive:

1. I forgive because there is only so much time that I can spend angry at someone.

2. I forgive because unforgiveness causes diseases.

3. I forgive because the past is over.

4. I forgive because there is only so much I can do about the past.

5. I forgive because it is the best thing that I can do for myself.

6. I forgive because I am not better than another and have done wrongings, too.

7. I forgive because it is up to God to judge.

8. I forgive because one of the nest boundaries is to separate myself from inner and outer hostility and resentment.

9. I forgive because there is something soothing about letting go of holding people hostage to something that they have done or how they behaved in the past.