Are you struggling to let go of the past? Is anger holding you back from living your life the way you've always imagined? Maybe it's time to try a little forgiveness. The Rev. Ed Bacon has some ideas on how to start.

Read on to find out how to forgive, then tune in Sunday for an hour with Oprah and Rev. Bacon. Watch it at 11 a.m. ET/PT on OWN. Plus, watch from anywhere in the world on Oprah.com, Facebook.com/OWNTV and Facebook.com/SuperSoulSunday.

By the Rev. Ed Bacon

I have begun the year and the new decade with the power of forgiveness demanding my attention and energy. It is as if forgiveness as a life force is saying, "I urgently need your attention!" Through these reflections, I ask you to let forgiveness claim your attention and energy as it is trying to guarantee you have the best year and decade of your life.

In studying the great spiritual teachers over the years, it has been clear to me that forgiveness is essential to a healthy life. Jesus harps on forgiveness repeatedly. The great psychotherapist Dr. Carl Simonton claimed that the first characteristic in people who are especially vulnerable to disease is a strong tendency to hold resentment and marked inability to forgive.

While these lessons have come to me largely as academic, theoretical understandings rather than through my everyday experience, it now seems everywhere I turn God, or the spirit of the cosmos, or however you refer to the greater power is saying, "It is time now for you to be an agent of the power of forgiveness." In many ways, I see this happening as a movement in the world touching all of us. Everywhere I turn, I'm existentially learning what power the instrument of forgiveness is in your life.

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