WEBVTT
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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
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the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
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suggested ideas.
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At the end of the day, it's not about what
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you have or even what you've accomplished. It's about what
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you've done with those accomplishments. It's about who you've lifted up,
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who you've made better. It's about what you've given back.
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Denzel Washington, Welcome to Inspire Vision. Our sole purpose is
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to elevate the lives of others and to inspire you
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to do the same.
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Catherine, and welcome to the show.
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Thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
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Hey, I'm really excited to hear what you have to
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say today. I think that the topic about forgiveness is
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something that not a lot of people. I mean, everyone
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talks about it to sub degree or another, but not
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everyone really understands the importance of it. But what I
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find interesting and I want you to share with the
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audience number one, who you are and what was your journey?
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How did you get to this point where you're focusing
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on forgiveness writing your book, and you've read a few books,
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I think, but writing this particular book and doing what
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you're doing, you.
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Can't know forgiveness and peace without contrast. And my life
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has had quite a lot of contrast. There's a lot
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of water under the bridge. It probably started in nineteen
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cent never mind what year it was. I don't think
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we need to go there, but let's just say it
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was decades ago. When I was in the eighth grade.
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My parents were very pickled people and being they were
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both outraging alcoholics, and I was getting horribly bullied in
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school because I was different and as and then they
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got it, we're getting a divorce. So as a result,
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in the year nineteen seventy five, nineteen seventy four, there
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we go. I tried to commit suicide because I just thought,
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you know, I just can't take it anymore, and a
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friend talked me out of it, and I turned into
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one of those kids, you know, those teenagers that are
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kind of draped in black. They have one friend they're
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they're always sick, and they're always kind of angry. I
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was angry, and I kind of just floated through life
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until my mother. When I was in my twenties. My
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mother fell down the stairs, broke her hip, and ended
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up in the hospital. And even my mother couldn't get
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a genentonic in the hospital, so she dried out and
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we sent her to rehab and I spent the next
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three years with my mother, and we were as close
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as sisters. We forgave each other, we traveled, we were inseparable.
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And then she died of breast cancer, a disease that
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I got many years later. I'm a breast cancer survivor,
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and I realized when she died that if I didn't change,
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I would die too. I mean, it was just so clear.
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So I've now been sober for thirty four years, and
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I got my act together, got married, been married thirty
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three years. Doesn't take much to figure that math out. Wow,
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and over the I over the years, I you know,
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I'm one of the founders of the concierge industry and
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all these things. But I lost the anger because I
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really just started to forgive. But here's the deal. Everybody
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tells you to forgive. Your parents, your teachers, everybody, nobody
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teaches you how you know that? And what if you
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don't want to? Then what do you do? So the
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system I created, and there's a secret sauce to the method,
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but it's a step by step method that teaches people
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exactly how to forgive. And once I started to forgive
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people my my entire life just opened up. Even before
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I knew the system, it started to open up. Well.
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And you know, it's so interesting. You've used some words
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there that I think were so true to me.
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The anger.
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Now you didn't use frustration, but that's something else. And
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what what have you found? I mean, you're your own
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experience is so personal, but what have you found in general?
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For people that are not able to forgive? How does
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that affect their lives?
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Let me show you a visual that'll explain the entire
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thing for anybody listening. I'm about to hold an opaque
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coffee cup right in front of my face. So this
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coffee cup is my anger, it's my bitterness, it's my resentment.
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And when I first get angry, look at my body language.
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I can hold it right off to the side. This
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is easy. I can manage my anger. I can hold
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it off to this side. I could conduct my life,
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look at my body language, and I could talk. We
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could have dinner, I could go to work. The longer
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I hold on to this cup, the more stuff, the
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more anger I'm going to pour into it. And eventually,
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now I've got two hands holding up the cup. Well,
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I could still kind of hold it off to the side,
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but it's starting to affect my conversations. It's starting to
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get into my head. I'm starting to think about it
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and more because I'm in pain, and it's very hard
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to focus on your general life if you're in pain.
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And if I continue to hold on to it, eventually
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it's going to get so heavy. Now it's all I
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can think of. The cups right in front of my face.
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I can't even see you anymore. All I can do
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is focus on the anger. I'm talking about it, I'm
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breathing it. My friends are going down, he goes. Who
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wants to be with me? I'm sick and tired and
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angry all the time, and it's always in my conversations.
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So the system is designed to put the glass down
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now that when you can put the glass down, now,
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look at my body language. Now I can pay attention again.
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That's what forgiveness does. I can see that new money
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making opportunity. I can see that new beautiful significant other
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coming into my life. Why didn't I see it before
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because I was too focused on the anger. It was
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all I could see. Well, one reason, that's one way
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forgiveness is going to change your life. And I guarantee
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you it's like the law of gravity. The law of
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gravity will work whether you believe it or not. And
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I have a bunch of science so we can talk
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about to back up everything I'm saying. But the law
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of forgiveness is the same. This stuff is serious science
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and it's going to work whether you believe it or not.
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All right, So we're just over an election. And if
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you take the time to listen to the news, listen
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to some podcasts, all of that, read articles, there is
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so much anger that is going on. And why what
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is the root cause in your opinion, of all of
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this anger that's going on within the country. Why why
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do individuals get so angry about these things?
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Our society is set up very weird. Because you know,
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my younger son is in the news media and he
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often I often ask him why is there so much
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negative news? Why? I asked in that once a couple
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of years ago, and he said, here's what we usually
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say in the newsroom. If it bleeds, it leads. People
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are kind of in love with the negative aspect of life.
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They're in love with being miserable. Now, why is that?
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Because as kids, this is just my humble opinion. By
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the way, as children, we are taught, at least my
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generation was. I'm sixty three, so back in the seventies,
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I was taught to ignore my negative feelings. Stop crying,
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or I'll give you something to cry about. My mother
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used to say me, right, children should be seen and
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not heard. Oh you're crying, Oh you're upset. Well, just
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you know, deal with it. We were negative emotions we
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were taught were not good emotion. And it's the thing
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about humans when you're told not to do something, Well,
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now I want to do it, you know. So now
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I want to chase those negative emotions because you just
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told me they're bad. Okay. Well yeah, it's like telling
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a child you can't drink till you're twenty one. Okay,
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I'm fifteen. I want to drink now because now I can't.
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You know.
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It's that kind of a thing. And you know, we're
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in love with fear. It's a strange society. But the forgiveness,
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you know, I've said many the system. We'll talk about
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the system. I'll even give you the step by step system,
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and that's fine. I appreciate it. But you know, the
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thing that people are thinking about is when they see forgiveness.
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Even in the title of this podcast, ten out of
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ten people have the same reaction on a ten scale,
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with ten being unforgivable, dumpster fire and one being the
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easiest person in the world to forgive. Y'all are thinking
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of your number tens, every single one of you. And
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that's why nobody wants to forgive, because you're thinking about
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the one human being in the world that kind of
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that completely wrecked your life. And that's fair. But in
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my world, you don't have to start. I don't want
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you to start with the number tens. I want you
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to start with the ones. I want you to start
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with the easy ones and work your way up, and
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you don't even have to forgive your number tens. I'm
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the only one in the world that will tell you that.
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Why Because there's a lot of other people, places and
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things you can forgive before you even get to that person.
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And I did say places and things. Just hang with
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me a little while. I'll explain why I said that.
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Okay, And you talk about the transformation power, the transformational
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power of forgiveness, and just from a brief outlook, what
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are you talking about there? What happens to an individual's
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life when they actually learn? And I look forward for
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you teaching us all how to do this, But what
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happens transformationally for an individual when they really learn to forgive?
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What have you observed?
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I love this question. There's a study and you can
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google this. It's right online. It's called the Japanese Water Study.
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A guy named I know I'm not saying his name right,
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but it's Massimoto's something. I never can remember his name,
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but anyways, he took several containers of water. One container
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of water, all he did was speak love, to say
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he just talked to it and he said these beautiful
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words to it, told it he loved it. The other
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container of water he spoke hate, horrible, awful words. Then
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he froze the water and he put it under a microscope.
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The water that he spoke love to had these beautiful formations,
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gorgeous snowflake like formations. The water he spoke hate to
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had these black and brown mauth formations. And why am
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I telling you that? Because when people say anger is toxic,
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this is this is the how what do you Your
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body is over ninety five percent water. So when your
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self talk is bad, when you're thinking anger and you're
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following all the negativity and you're holding onto your anger,
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what do you think you're doing to the water cells
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in your body.
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Yeah, the same thing.
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And literally making yourself sick. So as you forgive, even
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with the easy ones, you're literally changing your body from
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the inside out. And if you combine that with some
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mental work. I'm a breast cancer survivor and a lot
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of people stage three best breast cancer, and a lot
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of people said, how did you do it? Well, it's mindset.
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I purposely thought, positively, your mind is the most powerful
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tool that you have at your disposal.
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Absolute and it's amazing. And I think this is being
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proven now by science that the body with mindset, correct meditation,
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whatever it takes, that the body can literally heal itself
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it had it can.
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You're changing the water cells in your body from those
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black and brown male formations, and your body expels it
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to these beautiful, crystal like ones, and you're going to
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start to feel better. And even if you forgive the
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easy ones, like the person who just cuts you off
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on the highway or the person who stole your sandwich
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out of the work refrigerator, you could forgive these people.
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Come on, how about the kid in grammar school who
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cheated off your paper and they got an A. You
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can forgive that person. Come on, now we are the
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easy ones, and that's going to start you on the
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path back to help.
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I laugh because you know, even yesterday, I'm in Thailand
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and I get so frustrated sometimes because I don't speak Thai,
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and you know, using Google Translate sometimes it just makes
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a mess of communication. And just the other day, a
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fellow came to repair some things. He drove right in
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front of my driveway, so I couldn't get out and
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I needed to go somewhere, and I'm going like that,
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and it's like, okay, relax, you know, and so breathe in,
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breathe out, relax type of thing. But what you're talking
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about is that even those kind of incidences we need
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to learn to forgive rather than get upset, frustrated or angry.
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Yeah, you can forgive anything.