You Probably Don’t Want to Hear This (and Neither Do I) — But It Has to Be Done

If we're going to have a true forgiveness practice, we're going to have to forgive the shooters.  I know. This is a really hard one.  Yes, I’m talking about the shooters, the people who commit acts that seem unforgivable. And yes, we’re going to explore why forgiveness matters even here

Forgiveness Unblocks the Divine

Forgiveness serves many purposes, but one of the most profound is that it reconnects us to the divine. When we only forgive some of the transgressors, we block ourselves from fully experiencing unity with the great Oneness. True spiritual freedom comes when our forgiveness extends without limits—even to those whose actions shock or horrify us.  And remember, forgiving them does not mean condoning or approving their actions. Forgiveness is about freeing your own heart and opening to love, even in the face of what feels unforgivable.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Stepping Into Their Shoes

When we begin the difficult work of forgiving “shooters” or anyone who commits acts of extreme violence, a helpful step is empathy. Try to imagine what could cause someone to behave this way. Often, these individuals feel alienated, unloved, or harshly judged. Many were bullied as children, had few friends, or never felt they belonged. It’s not an excuse, but understanding their suffering can soften our hearts and open the door to forgiveness. 

Society’s Role

We can’t ignore the environment that shapes these behaviors. When society normalizes games where children simulate shooting others for hours, what mindset are we cultivating? We are literally training young minds to think in terms of guns and violence, numbing them to the horror and suffering that such actions cause. This societal conditioning contributes to a cycle of pain that extends far beyond the individual.

Why Forgive Anyway

It’s hard. It may feel repugnant. But forgiveness is about freeing ourselves first. Resentment, anger, and fear keep us trapped, while forgiveness releases us and opens the way to love, clarity, and peace. Extending forgiveness—even in these extreme cases—connects us to the higher truth of our shared humanity and to the divine Oneness that unites us all. 

The Simple Truth About Forgiveness

It really is simple to forgive these people. Just remember: they are all children of God, too. God created them, and He loves them. If He can love them, we can at least extend forgiveness.

God sees all of us beyond our crazy actions on this psycho planet. He knows our true goodness because He created us exactly in His own image. He is pure love, and in our ultimate truth, so are we.

All you have to do is hold that thought for these poor, misdirected souls. Feel it in your own heart for a moment or two. That’s what forgiveness truly is: a moment of seeing the higher truth.

Want to go deeper into forgiveness?

• Explore how forgiveness reconnects us to divine compassion in Unblocking our Connection to Love.

• For a little Halloween-inspired forgiveness see What's Behind the Costume. 

• My book, Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness, offers heartfelt guidance, spiritual tools, and real-life practices. Read it on Amazon →

• Let daily affirmations support you too — discover the Forgiveness Metta Card Deck for a gentle morning practice of peace and release. View the deck on Etsy 

• Browse more forgiveness tools, art, and daily reminders in our Etsy Shop 

• Want to receive free weekly forgiveness coaching emails? Sign up and get insights, tools, and inspiration to deepen your practice of forgiveness → Sign up here

Let these tools light your path — because forgiveness sets you free.
— Sue Pipal

Jesus Said To Forgive... Because He Said So

 Why We Sometimes Resist Forgiveness

When you were younger, your mother told you to clean up your room. Maybe you didn’t really see the purpose in having a clean room. Maybe toys and clothes strung all over the floor suited you just fine. But... Mother said so. She told you to clean it up. Period. And if you questioned her, she might have even said, “Because I say so.”

Photo by Vije Vijendranath on Unsplash

Now, all these years later, you might just realize that she was right all along. Having a clean room actually makes life so much better. It’s easier to find things, it’s more peaceful, and it just feels better to be in a space that’s tidy. Mother knew best.

Just like Mother, Jesus always knows best. When He tells you to forgive, you do it. Not because you understand the full reason right away, but because Jesus said so.

Forgiveness may not always make sense in the moment. It may feel difficult or unfair, especially when someone has wronged you. But just like cleaning your room, forgiveness has a purpose. It clears the clutter from your heart, making space for peace, joy, and love to flow. It sets you free.

Jesus’ Command to Forgive

Jesus didn’t just suggest forgiveness; He commanded it. In the Gospels, He says, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). A Course in Miracles echoes this: “You who have sought release in many ways must now accept the one true means of release, which is forgiveness."— A Course in Miracles, T-9.VII.3:6

Forgiveness Makes Life Better

When Jesus tells us something is crucially important, we trust that He knows best. And just like a clean room, forgiveness ultimately makes our lives better. So, the next time forgiveness feels hard, remember: Jesus said to do it. And like Mother’s wisdom, it’s for your own good.

Want to go deeper into forgiveness?

• Explore how forgiveness reconnects us to divine compassion in Unblocking our Connection to Love.
• My book, Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness, offers heartfelt guidance, spiritual tools, and real-life practices. Read it on Amazon →
• Let daily affirmations support you too — discover the Forgiveness Metta Card Deck for a gentle morning practice of peace and release. View the deck on Etsy → https://www.etsy.com/listing/4350470896/metta-prayer-forgiveness-affirmation
  
• Want to receive free weekly forgiveness coaching emails? Sign up and get insights, tools, and inspiration to deepen your practice of forgiveness. Sign up here →
  
• New: Explore the Forgive and Be Happy Etsy Shop for more inspiration and products: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ForgiveAndBeHappy                       

Let these tools light your path — because forgiveness sets you free.

— Sue Pipal

The Truth of Who You Are: Immense, Magnificent, Eternal

Photo by Aleksandr Ledogorov on Unsplash.com

Remembering Your Divine Magnificence and Eternal Nature

In a world filled with distractions, it’s easy to forget the truth of who we are. We are not limited by time, space, or circumstance. At our core, we are immense, magnificent, and eternal. These words are a reminder of the divine essence within you—a presence that transcends the physical and connects us to all that is. When you remember your true nature, you unlock the power to live in peace, love, and grace, knowing that you are always connected to the Source of all creation.

Let this truth guide you today: You are not just a person, you are a reflection of the divine, existing everywhere, always, and in perfect harmony with the universe. Embrace this truth and watch how it transforms your life.

Want to go deeper into forgiveness?

• Explore how forgiveness reconnects us to divine compassion in Unblocking our Connection to Love. Read it here →
• My book, Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness, offers heartfelt guidance, spiritual tools, and real-life practices. Read it on Amazon →
• Let daily affirmations support you too — discover the Forgiveness Metta Card Deck for a gentle morning practice of peace and release. View the deck on Etsy →

Let these tools light your path — because forgiveness sets you free.

— Sue Pipal

We all want the same thing...

Recognize all whom you see as brothers, because only equals are at peace. --A Course in Miracles

Power struggles happen because we think we are both separate and different from each other.  We forget that we are both made of the same love and that we both share the same basic interest, which is to love and to be loved.  --Robert Holden



We are both made of the same love.

Every one of comes from the same source.

We are all made in the same image.

Love is what we are.

And we all want the same thing here on earth.  We want to know that love.  We want to experience the truth of ourselves.  It's sometimes hard to remember that truth here.  There are so many blocks to it.  And, of course, we've created them all ourselves.

But all we really want is know love, be love, receive love and give love.  Every action we take, every thought we think, it all boils down to one basic desire, and that is to know love again.

When you see someone behaving badly, just know that he is blocked from understanding and seeing his truth.  His motivation comes from the desire to be loved.  He is simply confused about how to actually achieve that.  He can't see it.

Give him the love he needs in the form of your forgiveness.


   

What's Behind the Costume? Halloween Reflections: Drop the Ego Costume and See the Love Within

Life as a Costume: The Roles We Play

Even though I am a student of A Course in Miracles, I regularly attend a Science of Mind church. My minister, Rev. Liz Luoma, likes to refer to us all as adorable little packages of God. We’re all in different “packages,” but underneath, we are all the same essence.

Last month, during the Halloween season, she likened these packages to costumes. When we live on earth, we take on a costume (or role or character) and develop it over a lifetime. Our entire lives become a process of refining this character—often haunted by egoic fears and shadows.

Which costume have you chosen?

The Ego as a Scary Costume

Which costume have you chosen? In A Course in Miracles, these costumes are called the “ego.” The ego is our creation, not God’s. Take away the costume, the role, the character, and what is left? The part of us that God created—timeless, endless, unlimited, perfect, and One with God.

Underneath all the costumes and roles, we are not ourselves as the world sees us—we are the love and essence God created.

Lost in the Spooky Movie of Life 

But we get so busy living in our costumes that we forget who we really are. We become utterly consumed by the fantasy, convinced that our roles define us. It’s like going to a spooky movie—the lights go out, the story becomes our world, and we are completely absorbed.

Our lives on earth are similar. We get caught in the haunted illusions and forget our true selves.

Drop the costumes to forgive   

Forgiving requires that we simply drop those egoic costumes for a moment.  There is a larger part of us and it is not here in this false Halloween-like world of costumes.  We must remember that everyone is really only Love and always One in God. 

Forgiveness is the act of accepting that people come here to this 3D earth and put on a costume and do silly things.  They are deluded, they have simply forgotten who they really are.  When we forgive, we remember for them, who they really are.

Words for Haunted and Creepy Forgiveness

You can start your forgiveness practice with these words:  

You are Spirit,

Whole and Innocent,

I forgive you.

I release you.

I bless you with Love.  

I often begin with these words, then continue through a deeper process to see the higher truth for someone I am forgiving. It takes about five minutes and allows me to shift feelings from egoic fear to Love, no matter how personally scary, creepy, or even globally destructive someone’s actions may seem.

Learn the Process in My Book

The full process is detailed in my book,  Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness. It walks you through seeing through the costumes of this temporary world, focusing on higher truth, and practicing forgiveness for greater peace and joy.

Want to go deeper into forgiveness?

• Explore how forgiveness reconnects us to divine compassion in Unblocking our Connection to Love. Read it here →

• My book, Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness, offers heartfelt guidance, spiritual tools, and real-life practices. Read it on Amazon → | Barnes & Noble → | Balboa Press →

• Let daily affirmations support you too — discover the Forgiveness Metta Card Deck for a gentle morning practice of peace and release.

• Receive free weekly forgiveness coaching emails and insights to deepen your practice → Sign up here

• Enjoyed this post? Follow this blog to get new forgiveness insights delivered straight to your inbox! Just click the Follow button at the top of the page.

Let these tools light your path — because forgiveness sets you free.
— Sue Pipal

What's my assignment?

A Course in Miracles talks a lot about our function.

Our function is our purpose, it's why we're here, it's our assignment.

Are we here to get rich?  To raise beautiful children?  To see the world?  To enjoy our lives?  To be nice to other people?

Although there's nothing wrong with any of these activities, they have nothing to do with our true function, our true purpose, our true assignment.  We're here for so much more than all this.

"Forgiveness is my function as the Light of the World".   --Workbook Lesson 63

What does it mean to choose forgiveness as our true function?

It's not just forgiving the guy that stole your parking place.  It's more than forgiving the person who deeply and truly broke your heart.  It's more than forgiving your parents for the overall permeating sense of rejection they created in your life.  It's more than forgiving what's going on right now in the Middle East.  It's so much more than any part of this alone.

Our true function is to forgive ALL of this.  We are here to forgive the WORLD.  All of it!  Yes, every single bit of pain, hurt, difficulty, frustration, lack, murder, sin, guilt, upset and fear.  The whole enchilada is what we're here for.

"Feel what you have created as a substitute for the truth.  Own it, look upon it, and then let it go.  Learn that regardless of what choice you may have made in the past, once you have embraced it, once you have felt it, you remain perfectly innocent and imbued with the power to choose again, to feel, to learn once again to feel the glorious warmth that permeates the Kingdom of Heaven."  --Way of Mastery p. 81      

We are here to accept every single bit of fear we see in the world around us.  Every bit.  We must see it, feel it, forgive it, accept it and release all judgment of it.  And as we do so, we transmute our feelings about what we see into love.  With acceptance comes love.  And with love comes peace.

"There will not be a molecule of beingness within you that will feel any resentment, any longing, any anger, or any remorse for anything.  All of your experience will have become wholly acceptable to you.  For it was by such experience that you were finally driven to want only the Truth." --Way of Mastery p. 81   

That's why we're here folks.  Nothing more and nothing less.  To forgive, accept and embrace with love all that exists.

Ask to Forgive

An "angel" will come.  An angel from deep within ourselves. A voice for love.  Ask to have that voice.  An experience of truth, not the same-old ego-story.

When you are sick and tired of chaos, confusion, pain and fear, ask for help.

Be willing, even if it is willing that it will happen later.

Ask for the help.  Love is available to every one of us.  Love is our deep immortal truth.  No matter who you think you are and what you think you've done, you are actually only love,  what you have done is only love.  You cannot be otherwise. You are not the exception to love.

We are all one.  We are all the same.  We were, each and every one, created by the Divine to be perfect.  The Divine creates in his own image and he is, simply, love.  Therefore, no matter how you deny it and run from it...you are love, too.

And you can be nothing but love.  God is only love and God is all there is.  There is nothing more that you can be.  You are not separate from God.  You are what he is, no matter how you decieve yourself.  You may choose to perceive that you are bad, wrong or sinful.  You may choose to perceive that others are bad, wrong or sinful.  But it is merely perception, not truth.

 There is no duality.  Our "dream world" of fear, violence, hatred, anger and frustration is only an illusion.  Ask to be freed of this illusion and to see the truth of yourself.  You are love.

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Happiness is an Attribute of Love

Happiness is an attribute of love.  It cannot be apart from it.  Nor can it be experienced where love is not. --A Course in Miracles, Lesson 102

This is why forgiveness is the key to happiness.  When we hold grievances and judge others we are out of alignment with love.  When we are out of alignment, it is not possible for us to be truly happy.

We may have fleeting moments of happy experiences, but deep true abiding happiness can never be a significant and lasting factor in our lives until we forgive the world around us.

Many of us look at our lives and think, "But I have a good job and I found the right spouse.  We have money to live on and a comfortable house and children that are healthy and busy.  I must be happy."

Comfort and busyness are not happiness.  They are pale shadows for true happiness.  In true happiness, we feel a deep trust and utter knowing that we are completely supported, infinitely valued and always cared for in every way.  We are joyful and loves flows from us and into us.

This is the happiness that a forgiveness lifestyle brings.

There's No Separation

"Many of us still believe that we have to work at being loving, but that means living in duality, because there's a giver and a receiver. Realizing that we are love transcends this. It means understanding that there's no separation between you and me, and if I'm aware that I am love, then I know that you are, too. If I care for myself, then I automatically feel the same for you!"  --Anita Moorjani in "Dying to be Me" 

This is how we forgive. We recognize that there is no separation between ourselves and our tresspasser. We are all connected. We love ourselves and we extend love to our trespasser. It's that simple. It all happens in the mind. We simply offer love in our thoughts. We flip the switch from angry, sad, hurtful thoughts to loving thoughts. That's all it takes.

The simple act of switching our thoughts from fear-based exclusion thinking to love-based inclusion thinking is the start of the creation of inner peace. Make this way of thinking a habit and happiness will become the dominant characteristic of your life.

Available at:

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Flip the Switch

Forgiveness is a matter of flipping the switch.  We go from fear to love.  From attack to generosity.  From thinking with the ego to thinking with Spirit.  From thoughts of torment, worry and trouble to thoughts of calm and inner peace.

At first, it's difficult to flip the switch.  We love our grudges.  They are cherished by us and we think we'll be giving up something we need if we release them.  But actually, they are nothing.  They bring us only pain.  Once released, we are happier.

With practice, we find it easier to just drop our grievance thinking and forgive.  Like anything else in life, the more we do it, the better we get at it.  Forgiveness becomes easy.  Most importantly, as we live the rewards of forgiveness we watch the happiness growing in our lives.  The more it grows, the more we want to forgive.

So come on, come on....get happy!

Start your happiness today.  For an easy guided forgiveness process, download Forgive Someone NOW for $2.99, here. You can load it onto your computer and then sinc it into your smart phone to listen to on head phones at night before you go to sleep.

Or download a copy of "Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness";

Available at:

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balboapress.com

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”

"Forgiveness is not an occasional act.  It is a permanent attitude."

"Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness."

"I have decided to stick with love.  Hate is too great a burden to bear."

Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, for changing our world!

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Get on the Forgiveness Gravy Train

Forgiveness changes your life.  If you want to stop living a nightmare and move your life into the "happy dream" life the Course of Miracles promises, only forgiveness can get you there. 

Some ways a steady habit of forgiveness will change your life:

Your life begins to feel lighter, easier, more pleasurable.  This brings you happiness.

The people you've forgiven change and actually become less annoying.  The more you forgive them, the more they change.  This brings you peace.

Life eases up.  Nightmarish things occur less often or not at all.  This brings you security. 

You begin to feel powerful in the role you play in healing the world around you. This brings you joy.

As your forgiveness work accumulates, you find that you are actually forgiving yourself on a deep subconscious level.  You allow yourself to accept God's gifts because you actually believe you deserve them now.  This brings you abundance.

The more you forgive yourself, the more you see the false self and the false world you've created.  This brings you truth. 

As you  begin to see your false self you begin to really see the insane lies you've been telling yourself and the insane things you've been doing, and you develop humility.  This brings you dignity.

Life slows down.  You take more time with what's important.  You know the difference between crazy ego schemes and the simple truth of God's love. You see the "real world" all around you.  This brings you beauty. 

You see your brother in every person you encounter.  This brings you love. 

Forgiveness will bring you everything you truly want!

Available at:

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My Table is Set and Ready

Come join me at my table.  This is a table of gratitude for all that God makes ours.  We give thanks that God loves us infinitely. We give thanks for the beauty and abundance we experience in this world. Thank you God for the love that surrounds us and the joy and peace that is ours whenever we choose to join with you. 

As an expression of our thankfulness, we in turn, love our brothers.  We release all judgments and we accept everything in this world.  All is forgiven.  We choose to live in love.  And on this day of gratitude we say our Thanksgivings!

Are you really, truly happy?

A Surprising Discovery in a Book Club

When I was in my early 30s, I joined a book club. One meeting, I remarked that it seemed like all the books we had been reading were filled with angst. “Where are the happy people and the happy stories?” I wondered.

I was surprised when my book club friends all looked at me blankly. “Sue, the world is not about happiness,” they said. I was shocked. This was a group of successful career women, many with corporate husbands, lovely homes, and small children cared for by nannies. On the surface, we looked happy—but not so.

The Hidden Struggles Beneath the Surface

As we went around the room, each woman confessed she didn’t feel happy much of the time. They spent most of their lives navigating monstrous “to-do” lists, keeping their households running, excelling at work, and caring for everyone around them.

Beneath their exterior success, they were disappointed in unmet expectations, struggled with feeling unconnected, and often felt distant from family and friends. Every one of them battled fear, rejection, and inadequacy.

Every one of them was secretly bitterly disappointed that their husbands did not love them in the way that they had once hoped they would be cherished and loved, that their bosses and co-workers did not see them as shining saviors for the companies they worked for, that they struggled with feeling unconnected and distant from their closest friends, and were heart-broken to find themselves physically separated from parents and families who often lived significant distances away.

Their lives were a constant state of worry, inadequacy and disappointment.  Each one battled daily with fears of rejection and abandonment.  Each one lived a surface life of success and happiness but underneath resided a deep-seated terror that the gig was about to be up.  Each lived with a terrible and secret fear that their real truth would somehow rise to the surface, and the whole structure they had worked tirelessly to create would shatter to the ground.

The truth is that when the lights go out in the middle of the night and we’re alone with our thoughts, every one of us feels achingly lonely, remorseful and terrified.

What We Really Feel Is Guilt

Much of what we call unhappiness is actually guilt. We feel guilty because we are living separately from God.  Denying that guilt drives us to chase accomplishments, possessions, and the symbols of success.  It’s the pride of self our egos cling to that separates us from knowing our true relationship with God.  And clinging to these trappings, activities, and illusions only moves us further from the peace and joy that are naturally ours. 

It’s by our own choice that we live in unhappiness. 

This is because the “world” is actually structured so that we can be happy.  There is only one thing that we need to do to attain it.  And this one thing is forgiveness.  When we forgive and see everyone else in the world as a valued loveable soul created by God, we begin to learn to chose love over fear.  Over time, continuously choosing love releases the blockages we have built that prevent us from having a relationship with our creator. Life gets easier and happiness grows. 

Forgiveness: The Key to True Happiness

In my book, Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness, I provide many easy-to-use processes that help you forgive anybody and any event in your life—past or present. Develop a daily habit of forgiveness, and watch your life transform from fear to love.

Want to go deeper into forgiveness?

• Explore how forgiveness reconnects us to divine compassion in Unblocking our Connection to Love. Read it here →

• My book, Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness, offers heartfelt guidance, spiritual tools, and real-life practices. Read it on Amazon → | Barnes & Noble → 

• Let daily affirmations support you too — discover the Forgiveness Metta Card Deck for a gentle morning practice of peace and release.

• Receive free weekly forgiveness coaching emails and insights to deepen your practice → Sign up here

Let these tools light your path — because forgiveness sets you free.
— Sue Pipal

Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness is available at:

Amazon.com

Barnesandnoble.com

Balboapress.com

Abundance Affirmations--Pair them With Forgiveness

The Power of Affirmations

Affirmations are a simple but powerful way to invite abundance into your life. They help reprogram the mind, shift perspective, and open your awareness to opportunities, blessings, and joy that might otherwise go unnoticed. But affirmations work even better when paired with forgiveness.

Why Forgiveness Enhances Abundance

Unforgiveness blocks energy. Holding onto resentment, guilt, or anger can create invisible barriers to abundance—whether that’s peace, love, joy, or even material prosperity. When we forgive, we clear the space in our hearts and minds, making room for the positive energies of life to flow freely.

Daily Affirmations to Pair with Forgiveness

Here are some affirmations to repeat daily, ideally after a moment of self-forgiveness or forgiving someone else:

• I release all that no longer serves me and open to the abundance of love and joy.

• I forgive myself and others, and I am free to receive all good things.

• Every day I attract opportunities, love, and blessings in perfect timing.

• I am worthy of abundance in all areas of my life.

• My heart is open, my mind is clear, and I trust the flow of life.

Bringing It Into Your Daily Life

Pairing affirmations with forgiveness is more than a practice—it’s a lifestyle. Each time you notice resentment, guilt, or judgment creeping in, pause, forgive, and then repeat your affirmations. Over time, this habit transforms not just your mindset, but the energy you project into the world, attracting more of the goodness and abundance you seek.

And Before Bed

Another great affirmation which I use frequently to help me wind down for bed and sleep deeply is a simple meditation.  Breathe in and say "I accept".  Then breathe out and say "the love of God".*  Repeat this over and over.  Again, this is another great tool, but if you want lasting happiness, forgive first and then meditate.  Make forgiveness a permanent part of your bedtime ritual and watch your life change.

*From The Way of Mastery

Sweet Dreams!

Want to go deeper into forgiveness and abundance?

• Explore how forgiveness reconnects us to divine compassion in Unblocking our Connection to Love.

• My book, Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness, offers heartfelt guidance, spiritual tools, and real-life practices. Read it on Amazon →

• Let daily affirmations support you too — discover the Forgiveness Metta Card Deck for a gentle morning practice of peace and release. View the deck on Etsy →

• Browse more forgiveness tools, art, and daily reminders in our Etsy Shop →

• Want to receive free weekly forgiveness coaching emails? Sign up and get insights, tools, and inspiration to deepen your practice of forgiveness → Sign up here

Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness is available at:

amazon.com

barnesandnoble.com

balboapress.com

Forgiveness Removes Guilt

Forgiveness Removes Guilt

I encourage everyone I know to start a daily forgiveness practice. Why? Because when we develop the habit of daily forgiveness, over time our guilt will be removed.

We all carry huge storehouses of unresolved guilt lurking in our subconscious minds. We feel guilty for every lie we've ever told, every unkind thought we've ever had, every person we've ever judged, or rule we've ever broken. We believe we have sinned.

 

The Mother-Lode of Guilt

Over the years, this guilt builds up. However, it pales in comparison to the mother-lode of guilt we create every moment we live apart from God. Living as individuals in our egos and choosing to ignore our true identity and oneness as God’s Son* leaves us with an iceberg of guilt beneath the surface of our conscious minds. Only forgiveness can heal this deep guilt.

Guilt Blocks Our True Inheritance

Without forgiveness, we believe we are unworthy. Guilt blocks our ability to experience the true gifts which are our inheritance from God. These gifts include peace, love, happiness, knowledge, beauty, and abundance.

The Key to Happiness

Here is the key to happiness: do your forgiveness work, and you will be able to live in God’s gifts. Forgive and release guilt, and you will begin to believe yourself worthy of accepting everything that God has to offer.

*Son--The word Son in A Course of Miracles, refers to the collective Sonship, of which we are all a part, having been created by God.  We are all his perfect Son, the Christ.

Want to go deeper into forgiveness?

• Explore how forgiveness reconnects us to divine compassion in Unblocking our Connection to Love. Read it here →
• My book, Forgiveness is the Key to Happiness, offers heartfelt guidance, spiritual tools, and real-life practices. Read it on Amazon →
• Let daily affirmations support you too — discover the Forgiveness Metta Card Deck for a gentle morning practice of peace and release. View the deck on Etsy →
• Want to receive free weekly forgiveness coaching emails? Sign up and get insights, tools, and inspiration to deepen your practice of forgiveness. Sign up here →

Let these tools light your path — because forgiveness sets you free.
— Sue Pipal

How Bob Newhart’s ‘Stop It’ Sketch Teaches Us to Let Go of Judgment

Bob Newhart’s Timeless Wisdom on Judgment

I recently attended a seminar in which Jon Mundy spoke. He mentioned how he is often asked about judgment—how to stop judging others. He reminded me of an old Bob Newhart episode that really puts things into perspective.

Just Stop It! The Power of Simple Advice

In the episode, Newhart’s character, a therapist, tells his patient simply: "Stop it. Just stop it!" It’s hilarious, but also profoundly simple advice that highlights how we often make our judgments more complicated than they need to be. The solution is as simple as Newhart’s character suggests: stop it. Stop the judging and choose to live in peace instead.

A Personal Connection to Bob Newhart

For me, this brought to mind not only the wisdom of Newhart's sketch but also my own personal connection to him. I have always loved Bob Newhart and watched many of his shows in reruns. Interestingly, my sister's first husband's father was the producer for Newhart's show. Bob Newhart’s mild manner always reminded me so much of my own dad, and I could sense his gentle, calm energy, even on-screen.

A Humbling Moment with Bob Newhart

One day, when I was in my early 20s, I was waiting at a stop signal on Hilgard Ave, adjacent to the UCLA campus. As I glanced over at the car idling next to me, I was delighted to see that it was none other than Bob Newhart! He had a small child (probably a granddaughter) in the seat next to him, and as I watched, he wrapped his arm tenderly around her, bending over to listen intently to whatever the child was saying. It was a charming, quiet moment that seemed to capture the essence of Newhart’s calm demeanor in real life.

Letting Go of Judgment: Choosing Peace

This moment, combined with Newhart’s iconic sketch, helped me realize how much judgment complicates our lives. It’s easy to get caught up in judging others, but if we can pause and reflect, we can choose to let go of judgment and replace it with love, peace, and understanding. The simple wisdom of “stop it” is more powerful than we often give it credit for.

So there you have it folks, let's all just stop it.  STOP IT!!  Stop the judging and live in peace. 

Want to go deeper into forgiveness?

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— Sue Pipal