A Day For Character Strength

Character Strengths are the qualities we admire in each other, that gives us energy and contribute to the betterment of ourselves and others. And we all have them. Some more hidden than others, some gone a little, or quite astray, but it is who we are as human beings.

One of my character strengths - this is based on the free test taken at the Character Strength centre but also resonates with my own experience: Forgiveness. It does come fairly natural to me and sometimes I struggle to understand how some people don't just forgive because it makes life so much easier, but that person might have a Justice Strength that prioritises bringing someone to justice, fighting so others don't have to suffer the same as them etc. 

So while I just forgive and move on, I might not another person to change while the person who doesn't forgive as easily might help get justice for certain wrongs that have been done. Having said that, sooner or later one has to forgive in order to be well in oneself and it is possible to forgive and bring someone to justice at the same time.

But forgiveness as a strength can be helpful in preventing anxiety about the future because forgiveness does involve trusting that something good can come out of a situation. Something good can come out of a wrong, out a mistake, even out of war and destruction. 

And so by applying forgiveness to the anxieties I woke up with this morning thinking about how easily a small country like Ireland or Denmark could be taken over by Chinese, Russian or any Arab power, how helpless and vulnerable we really are. We don't know the future.

Perhaps, it was Boris Johnsons decision to ignore agreements about the Brexit border that got working in my subconscious. When those who are our friends suddenly cannot be trusted to keep an agreement.

Forgiveness calms me down, helps me to accept what I cannot change. Helps me to focus on my own work and how that might somehow change the world, gives me the incentive to do my best to create a world of goodness and love in my corner of the world whilst sending positive healing energy towards those involved in solving this 'unsolvable' Brexit border problem.