In my last post I wrote about the habits I follow to help with my depression. However I omitted a very important one and that is forgiveness.  Once I started treating my depression, a fog started to lift and I could see clearly the mistakes that I had made while I was caught up in my problems. Upon that realization, I felt a great deal of guilt and regret. There were friends I had neglected, opportunities I had missed and stupid mistakes I had made along the way.  Asking forgiveness from friends was easy, asking forgiveness from myself was not.

Forgiving myself is an ongoing process.  When I was depressed, I was my own worst enemy.  I held myself back from living a full life and did some illogical things.  While now understand that my decisions were being influenced by my depression, it is still hard not to beat myself up. A therapist offered me some very helpful advice. At every point in my life I made the best decisions that I could based on the tools and information I had.  So, I cannot beat myself up for things I could not know or understand.  I need to forgive the person that I was then and let go. And, I need to keep my head in the present and enjoy who I am today.