Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. Forgiveness. How do we forgive ourselves when we've messed up? The good news is we can no matter what we've done

We can come to the place of self-forgiveness and letting go of the hurt we've caused others.

Though it can be very hard, it is also very possible.

Because sometimes we can really mess up. Recently in the town that I live in there was a woman who has four children of her own at home, and she went out drinking one night.

Well, when she was coming home, she crashed her car into a car of three other teenagers who are here in Southern California for vacation and she killed all three

of them. She did survive but the other three teenagers didn't. She was sentenced to 51 years in prison for her very bad choice that evening.

Now many of us can't relate to that type of crime, but have we ever done things where this could have happened?

Have any of us ever made choices that could have gone very south?

Or have we hurt people in other ways?

One of the listeners to our podcast sent a message to me just the other day.

He wrote,

Hello Dr. Puff, I'm a long time listener.

In my early childhood I experience a lot of violence, both verbal and physical, from my parents

and others and I inflicted the same upon my younger sister. I witnessed my father being

violent with my mother and others. I actually thought it was a normal part of

life to be violent, mean, and judgmental.

As I got older and after I started listening to your podcast, I became aware that my behavior

was extremely wrong.

I have genuinely apologized to her was extremely

apologized to her many times and explained that my awareness wasn't there and I

deeply regret my actions. Although we have been apart for more than 20 years and she's a

professional with a wonderful family, she still has very negative thoughts about

...