Medical Director’s Corner

James H. Schrenker, M.D., CMD

I was thinking of the lessons the clinic has taught over this past couple of weeks. One constant lesson is self love. God loves us unconditionally, yet we still struggle with loving ourselves. Why? Why are we not worth it? Why don’t we deserve love? Why can’t we accept abundance? The common thread through this is forgiveness. Forgiveness comes from within. It is not necessarily forgiveness of others, the most important one to forgive is yourself. Forgiveness is merely releasing the energy from a lesson that was chosen and learned.

We are here to figure out unconditional love. The circumstances we encounter daily are lessons that help us understand this. The predicament requiring forgiveness may have been planned even before you came here. Realize that even the most emotional situation is a lesson God is aware of, and you are most capable of handling. When this lesson is learned you will move toward grace and peace. In turn you will be asked to teach this to someone else for, after all, you learned it well.

Forgiveness is human. From a spiritual perspective it is unnecessary. The unconditional love of God doesn’t allow for forgiveness. Forgiveness from God’s perspective would imply that there were conditions placed upon your behavior. We harbor ill feelings towards others, God doesn’t.

Forgiveness is energy given to a situation, it is divine and of love unconditional. When your freewill impinges upon another’s or alters their karmic obligation, energy is manifested and/or taken from the base and sacral plexus chakras. This energy must be acknowledged; when acknowledged and accepted for the lesson being taught or learned forgiveness results. You must use the knowledge gained from that situation - if you don't use it then forgiveness may never take place because the lesson was never learned. It is not so much guilt that you have over the situation, it's a burning desire to learn the lesson and move on.

The problem arises when there's a rift between freewill choices and karmic effect. If your freewill choice alters another's karma, energy is developed that needs to be acknowledged. When we work through that, then there is forgiveness. When that energy is acknowledged not only by you, but by the other individual, then true forgiveness can take place. Forgiveness from a human standpoint on a human level may require the actions of many in order to be carried out. If your freewill choices impinge upon others’ freewill, they need to acknowledge that impingement was indeed your freewill.

Of course, the intent behind the action is all-important. Forgiveness will come more easily if the intent is obviously pure and from a higher point. Forgiveness may not come so easily if it was from a base level that would require the other individual to grow in such a way as to acknowledge himself from a higher being. As such, some individuals aren't capable of doing so; they don't recognize that they are higher beings, they recognize things for their face value and they can hold grudges. These grudges will eat at you and eventually destroy. You want to realize you come from a higher self and then acknowledge that these choices that were made upon you and for you will teach you lessons. Although they may be lessons that you may not have contracted for, they may be lessons you may not want to learn. Nevertheless, they are lessons. They are lessons to be learned.

That is the sticking point to freewill. Everything can change on a dime; everything can change on a moment's notice. Realize lessons can turn and you need to be pliable enough to change with them. There are days that everything seems to go wrong because your plans were not ultimately followed. Nevertheless, did you not wake and go to sleep as you did every other day? Did you not interact with people? Did you not laugh and cry, hope and wish like you do each and every other day? Yet, your mind has figured out that those plans that you ultimately set forth on that day were not followed. This is upsetting to some, and some would call it a bad day. As I have said on many occasions it is a good day, it is a good day. Every day is a good day. Your plans may not have been followed but lessons were there - lessons to be learned, and that is a wonderful thing to rejoice in. Some of the best days in your life, your plans were not followed but you rolled with the punches, so to speak. You figured out that if you can do this now, then onto this other thing and that will be just as good.

Along life's path we have side roads that we should not have taken but we took, and if you learned, if you loved, it was all worth it. Life isn't as deep a thought as many would like to think. Life is a wonderful conglomerate of joy and sadness, of true hope, of true love in our search for love unconditional.

So again, forgiveness is something else that needed to be developed when incarnation on the human plane took place. It is a wonderful gift, a gift that everyone has regardless of their spiritual background. It is forgiveness on the simplest terms - I'm sorry - forgive me - and it is forgiveness on terms that only few can ever understand, the loss of a loved one at the hands of another. Forgiveness isn't necessarily accepting the loss; it is knowing that the loss took place for reasons that were beyond our control, reasons that will eventually unite us all in the afterlife. It is looking into another one’s eyes and trying to understand where they are coming from, trying to understand the intent behind their words and actions. Forget this is looking into another's eyes and seeing self: themselves, yourself, God self. We are all intertwined. We are all intertwined on a cosmic level. Some have chosen to be intertwined on a human level. Forgiveness comes in recognizing that higher self. Recognizing that at some level we can understand better, but at this level we need to understand that is a job, this is a joy, this is a purpose.

Understanding intent, and acknowledging freewill - those are the foundations of forgiveness. When those are understood forgiveness can take place, but only few let it. You can stand in its way. You can impede forgiveness by holding grudges, by hardening your heart, by feeling unworthy. True forgiveness comes from opening your heart and sharing those feelings openly with others. A spoken word can either diffuse or spark a situation depending on what words are chosen, their context and, of course, the intent behind them.

Forgiveness of self may be the hardest thing to do because you are with yourself 24 hours a day seven days a week and you think you know yourself. And it is not much easier to talk to another person to let them know how you feel because your feelings are subject to your words, the words you choose - your delivery and intent can be hidden, or so you think. The intent behind your actions is known to you and, therefore, to forgive self is on the divine level because you are intimately aware of the intent behind your actions and your decisions. And when the intent may not be as pure as you wished then it becomes exceedingly difficult to forgive. You must realize that you're forgiven from God's point and from Spirit's point. You are a divine light, a bright beacon that shines.

The fact we struggle with forgiveness is wonderful. It shows we realize that there is something there that may not be as pure as we may like. Look at a situation and ask yourself: how can I ever be forgiven for this? It is as simple as sitting in a quiet room meditating and connecting with Spirit, opening up your heart and, for once, being honest with your intent, honest with your choices. Spirit will touch you, will cleanse you and you will feel a loving embrace tighter and warmer than any embrace you've ever felt. That is true forgiveness of self. When you look in the mirror you will be happy with what you see - it is amazing to be happy with yourself, it is the goal. You cannot positively affect others until you love yourself; you'll search for relationship after relationship in order to try to make yourself happy. That will be a self-defeating purpose, because the true happiness comes from within and from your self-love.

- James H. Schrenker, M.D., CMD

(This article is from our 2nd Qtr 2006 Newsletter)

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