I've seen a lot of incredible people stopped by an unwillingness to let go of a past that doesn't help them.

But as Lily Tomlin said, forgiveness means giving up hope for a better past.

And that's the truth, isn't it? There's nothing you can do about the past.

There's nothing you can do to undo it or to change what's already been done.

And yet somehow this is the area that people struggle most within their lives.

The thing that is hardest for people is to recognize the immutability of that fact.

There's nothing you can do.

It's done and gone forever.

And there's no way to get it back.

And the key in your life is to understand that that's fine, that you're going to learn from what happened,

that you're going to grow and get better.

And that living your life in the past is stopping you from having a future.

But Ascente can know that every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end.

And if you can accept that, if you can literally close the door on your past, if you can accept,

it's never going to get better.

If you can accept that it is what it is, if you can accept that part of what makes you a beautiful human being

is that horrible thing that happened to you or that horrible thing that you did,

that thing that you think there's no way you could ever be forgiven for.

But there's no one to forgive you but you.

And the only thing that you need to realize in order to give yourself that forgiveness is to understand

that nothing is ever going to make it any different.

But in the way that you think, you can make it better.

...