Ariya B. Baumann, dharma talk

I do the practice of forgiveness for myself. Forgiveness is an act of healing myself which gives me a lot of power. I call it a miraculous remedy. It does not cost anything, it works, and there are no harmful side effects. ... 

The first step of forgiveness is to see the other person as a human being, a human being like me, like you. It's important to recognize that, just like me, the other person can also make mistakes or just like me, sometimes other persons are also weak or are overcome with a negative emotion or just like me, sometimes other people are insensitive and confused, or just like me, other persons feel lonely or abandoned. 

So this recognition that other people are just like me helps in the process of forgiveness. We see that they too are on a journey with ups and downs. They are on a journey of having likes and dislikes. Often it's easier to forgive others than to forgive ourselves. We can be so hard on ourselves. We can be so stuck on simply seeing our weak points, our bad sides, and with that, blame ourselves, judge ourselves.