One of the most fashionable ideas at the moment is mindfulness.
One of the main features of mindfulness is to focus totally on your current task, whether it is interesting or boring.
This means that you have to eliminate all thoughts except those on your current task. If we resent somebody or something, then this can dominate our thoughts and stop us focusing on the current task or anything else.
I find that if I am thinking about a person or situation frequently and keeping the thought in my mind that is a strong indication that I am holding a resentment that can stop me concentrating.
How can we deal with the resentment? We have to change the way we think to reduce the impact of the person or situation on us.
Resentment means that you are holding a grudge and holding a grudge will always harm the person who holds the grudge.
Forgiveness is not a very fashionable word, but this is the way to deal with grudges.
I have found that there are a very long list of people I have to forgive to get a peaceful life for myself.
Top of the list of people that I need to forgive is myself. I have made many mistakes in the past, many of which I have felt guilty about at times in my life.
I had to realise that the decisions I made were based on my knowledge, understanding and experience at the time they were made.
I had to realise that I had changed significantly since I made many of these decisions. It may be true that anybody else who had exactly the same experiences as me at the time would have made the same decision.
If I had to make the same decisions now, I would make a different choice, but now I have much more experience. We should learn from experience and make better decisions
as a result.
Geoff Peck from Woosehill Church writing on behalf of Churches Together Wokingham
