Late one night, I received a call from a young couple who were frightened to be in their home, and were trying to avoid sleeping there. When I arrived, they told me about a shadowy, dark being who had been appearing to the woman of the house. She felt threatened by this figure, and feared that he intended to harm her. Ironically, she had been hoping to see a ghost for years; but, now that one was visiting her, all she wanted was to be left in peace. How could she convince this being to leave her alone?

As it turns out, this being had known her in a past life. They had been engaged to one another under an agreement of arranged marriage. My client had not upheld her end of the agreement, and this spirit during that lifetime, had grown old and died alone. He had spent that time wallowing in his hearthache, despair, blame and victimhood– holding my client accountable for his pain. Now he had returned to offer and seek forgiveness in order to make amends.

However, when my client encountered this being, all of her buried emotions rose to the surface. She felt trapped and suffocated, as though her life was not hers to live as she pleased. He reminded her of a time when she was chastised by others for following her dreams. She had assumed that the past was gone, and was not eager to have it sneak up on her in the 21st century. But its reappearance gave her the opportunity to face the situation and to release its hold on her. It freed her from living an ongoing rebellion against an event that she no longer remembered.

Needless to say, she was more than willing to forgive her former fiancé’s anger, as well as to accept his forgiveness of her decision. Most importantly, she was able to forgive herself for following her heart against the current of the times, whenever those times are.

Letting go of the past requires more than putting time between yourself and an event, it requires forgiving yourself. We can hold pockets of unforgiveness and regret even for decisions that we would make again. My client had decided to follow her own path, honoring the opening of her heart and freedom of her spirit. Yet, she regretted the pain and heartache that her former fiancé experienced in conjunction with her decision. She regretted that she could not choose his response, or the response of her family, to her decision. She did not regret her decision, and yet she needed to forgive its unpopularity. This reunion allowed her to release any of the doubts or regrets that had been burdening her. In forgiving and being forgiven, she not only let go of the past, she healed it.

Perhaps you are aware of a situation in your life that you can forgive, preventing the need for a shadowy figure to remind you to love yourself.

Feel your forgotten feelings and free yourself!Written by Heidi Szycher, a staff member at the Boulder Psychic Institute. Check out her personal site at healings.biz.