223 Forgiveness Is Freedom with Chris Lee

"Forgiveness is about no longer giving someone else the energy they don't deserve." - Chris Lee If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/223 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:04Chris Lee?

  Hi, this is Chris Lee and this is Five Minute Friday, episode 223. I feel honored that I've been invited to be part of Five Minute Friday. And today, I want to talk about when I forgive, I'm free. A lot of people think that to forgive is to validate people's actions and to validate what happens to us and to make okay what you went through. And I have a different perspective on forgiveness. For me, forgiveness is really not about the other person, it's about myself. It's about making a choice to no longer give somebody energy that they don't deserve.

• 0:46Chris Lee?

  It doesn't matter what has happened, if somebody has let you down, or somebody betrayed you, if somebody abused you, ripped you off, cheated on you, whatever the situation is,

• 1:00Chris Lee?

  it doesn't matter how intense or how small. If I don't forgive that person, or forgive the event, or forgive the situation, then my energy is wasted and drained, being angry at, upset with that situation or that person. And then basically, that person has my power. And we're talking about things that happened recently, or things that happened from the beginning of our memory. Some people hang on to things that happened when they were two years old, and they're now well into their adult life, and they're still pissed, and still angry, and still harboring resentment. Resentment is a killer, because it takes a lot of energy, it takes away our joy,

• 1:46Chris Lee?

  it takes away our passion, it takes away our productivity. And by acknowledging that I'm upset, or that I have not forgiven somebody, or being willing to forgive the unforgivable, then that gives me the opportunity to say goodbye to something and to get my power back.

• 2:10Chris Lee?

  I'll never forget reading a story about a woman that forgave the drunk driver that ran over her son, her only son that was home from college, visiting his girlfriend. He was walking from their house to the girlfriend's house, and a drunk driver climbed up on the sidewalk and killed her son. She was so upset and so angry that she developed cancer. And one day it dawned on her, if I don't forgive this man, he's gonna kill me too. So not only did she forgive him, she went to his jail, because he was in jail, hugged him, forgave him, and adopted the family he left behind as her own.

• 2:52Chris Lee?

  Needless to say, cancer went into remission, and she's still alive to tell the story. So I believe that we could forgive even smaller things than that, because imagine that happening to you. So forgiveness is a way of living life. So my point of view and my coaching to you all is forgive everybody and everything for everything. Whether they deserve it or not is not your problem. You deserve to forgive other people, because if you don't, they keep harming you. So forgiveness does not mean be a doormat and let people keep walking all over you. It can mean, I forgive you, and there's the door. Or forgiveness can also mean a second opportunity.

• 3:36Chris Lee?

  Also, don't forget, you get to forgive yourself every single day. So once again, forgiveness is the key to freedom. You want to be free, you get to forgive. Have a great weekend.