Most people regard forgiveness of others to be a virtue worth striving for, even as many of us struggle to forgive, especially when we’ve been deeply hurt. In this remarkable program, we examine misconceptions about forgiveness (that it is a form of excusing bad behavior) and explore how forgiving someone for misconduct can release us from the effects of the other person’s confusion. Robin Casarjian tells of the deep trauma she experienced earlier in life, and how she was forced to work through what it means to let go. She explains that the origin of the word “resent” is to have a repeated feeling, and that resentment of a bitter event causes us to experience it over and over. Forgiveness, in contrast, allows us to become free of it. Casarjian is the author of Forgiveness: A Bold Choice for a Peaceful Heart and founder the Lionheart Foundation, which teaches forgiveness and other life skills to prisoners, youth at risk and teenage moms.

You probably pay the price of living with a level of anxiety, clearly hostility, oftentimes depression that may not be necessary. What follows from that, for a lot of people, are health-related symptoms. The tension in your body, the headaches that might come on, whatever the health implications are for that. So you just pay a high price, and it stops you from really being able to be fully present to yourself, and to other relationships. So forgiving frees you. Forgiveness frees the forgiver.”

—Robin Casarjian, Executive Director of the Lionheart Foundation and author of Forgiveness