Self-forgiveness is a key part of healing and personal growth, without it, you are holding yourself back from your full potential and opportunities that are out there for you. The holding on to a past event or behaviour keeps you in this feeling of shame, of anger and of that you are perhaps underserving of all that you desire.

A result of being unable to forgive yourself is that you have more than likely subconsciously put up barriers to the world around you. These barriers may be hindering your ability to build relationships, friendships or reconciling past connections.

Sometimes self-forgiveness is not all about our own transgressions, we can often feel we were wronged, and although we may not have played a part in such a situation, we would have reacted, and we may be harbouring feelings about our actions after the event, and these are delaying our ability to move on.

So how can you heal and move forward then?

It can take on many forms, and many approaches, and true self-forgiveness requires some soul-searching. Throughout the many approaches that people take, there a four key stages that are crucial to self-forgiveness and feature in all approaches to healing from past events.

These four stages are the four R’s