Unlocking the Power of Forgiveness

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Have you ever been told to just say I forgive you?

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Only to feel it's not quite enough?

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Today we'll be diving deep into the transformative power of forgiveness with Catherine giovanni. She's a three time award winning best selling author of 12 transformative books, including her latest, the Ultimate Path to Unlocking your Power. Catherine is not only a dynamic speaker and trainer, but also one of the original founders of the independent concierge industry. In this episode, Catherine shares profound insights into the art of forgiveness and personal empowerment. Challenging the notion that forgiveness is just a phase, you'll learn how to truly engage in the process, heal your soul and transform your relationships.

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Whether you're yearning for inner peace, healing from generational trauma, or to find a way to use these tools for your grandchildren's healing, Catherine's step by step guide will show you the way. Tune in for a powerful discussion that goes beyond words, helping you to find your path to understanding and peace. Sometimes I forgive you is only the beginning welcome to Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Nurturing through Adversity. In this podcast, we will delve deep into the challenges and triumphs of grandparents raising grandchildren as we navigate the complexities of legal, financial and emotional support. I invite you to join us on a journey of exploring thoughts, feelings and beliefs surrounding this growing segment of our society. Drawing from real stories and expert advice, we will explore the nuances of child rearing for children who have experienced trauma and offer valuable resources to guide you through the intricate journey of kinship care.

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We'll discuss how we can change the course of history by rewriting our grandchildren's future, all within a supportive community that understands the unique joys and struggles this podcast was made especially for you.

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Welcome to a community where your voice is heard, your experiences are valued and your journey is honored.

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Before we begin, I want to share a piece of my journey that led me to a profound understanding.

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Becoming the primary caregiver for two of my grandchildren was and has been a very transformative experience.

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But it also brought unexpected challenges.

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Their behaviors often triggered deep seated anger and indignation within me, emotions I didn't recognize before as part of my character. And it wasn't until I took the brave step of looking inward that I unearthed unresolved pain from my own childhood, pain that had been quietly shaping the responses in my life. I realized that to truly support and guide my grandchildren, I needed to resolve these deep seated issues of resentment against my parents and other figures from my past. As I embarked on this healing journey, I discovered the power and importance of transparency with my grandchildren.

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Sharing my Own stories of past pain helped them navigate their own inner turmoil and allowed us to forge a profound and honest connection.

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This process has not only helped my grandchildren heal, it has gifted me with a legacy of peace, personal respect, and a vision for a brighter future for all of my children and grandchildren. It was during this journey that I encountered Catherine Giovanni's work, which played a pivotal role in my healing.

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Her insights into forgiveness offered me and and countless others away through the complexities of pain and resentment, leading to a life of greater peace and empowerment.

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So I ask you if it is peace that you're seeking on the other side of your struggles. I want to invite you to listen and explore Catherine's transformative work. Her guidance could be the key to unlocking a brighter path for you and those you love, just as it was for me.

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Join us as we dive into intuition and the art of forgiveness and find the courage to embrace the peace that's waiting for you.

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Catherine, today I'd like us to discuss the challenges that we as grandparents are facing raising our grandchildren, and how using our intuition and forgiveness can play an important role in the work that we're doing to leave a greater legacy and perhaps change the course of history for these kids as well as for our own families. Catherine, you yourself have been through a lot and experienced a lot of adversity in your own life, including surviving breast cancer and navigating a difficult childhood yourself, haven't you?

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Yep. So I want to know, how have these experiences informed your approach to resilience and the two topics that we're going to talk about today?

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Well, my journey in forgiveness probably started in when I was a kid in the 8th grade in the 19, nevermind what year it was.

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And my parents were very pickled, they were raging alcoholics and I was horribly bullied in school because I was different. And when they tried, when they got a divorce, it was the ugliest divorce ever. And I tried to commit suicide because of the stress from all of it.

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And I went through the next 15 years as one of those kids who I'm talking about and I just kind of bounced around. But I had a few lighthouses in my life and that I kept my eye on adults that kind of took me under their wing. And then about 15 years later, my mother fell down the stairs, broke her hip and ended up in Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. Even my mother couldn't get a Chitin tonic in the hospital, so she dried out and we sent her to rehab. And I had the most beautiful three years with Her. She was sober. We forgave each other. We got to know each other. We were closer than sisters. And then she died of breast cancer. So I kind of fell down into the abyss again. And I realized that if I didn't clean up my act, I'd probably die like she did.

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So I've been sober now for 34 years, and I got my life together, and I realized that anger and hatred and running around with this story that I was talking about. I'm a survivor. Look at me. I survived all these things. Wasn't serving me. So I started to forgive people. But the thing about forgiveness is everybody tells you you have to forgive. Nobody teaches you how.

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And what if you don't want to? That's a fair question. And that's how my journey began. That's how my journey began.

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So your latest book is the ultimate path to forgiveness, Unlocking your power. Correct. Correct.

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Let's talk about the role of forgiveness, which is a big one for grandparents that are raising their grandchildren.

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Many are angry about being in the position that they're in, and there's. There are complicated familial relationships going on. Yeah.

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Well, I think that grandparents have a unique perspective that a lot of younger parents don't, because you have. There is a. For most of us, there's a ton of water under the bridge and no video evidence of the stuff we did. Thank God. Right?

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There's no evidence, but we all have water under the bridge. And experience is. You know, going through that stuff is a wonderful experience that gives you a very, very unique perspective on your grandkids and how to raise them. How I raised my kids is probably different than how I would raise them today with all of this, all of the tools that I now have. True.

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And to raise. If I had known about this forgiveness technique when I was a kid, I could have avoided a lot of stuff.

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So not only is it going to help the adult in the relationship, because it's very hard to live your life behind the veil of anger. It's also gonna. It's a very easy system to teach the kids so they can not become those angry teenagers like I was.

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So the whole system is designed to help people release their anger. You know, it's. It's. It's like, for everybody listening, I know that's a visual, but I'm about to hold a coffee cup right in front of my face, and this coffee cup I'm holding to the side of my body. It's anger, it's resentment. I can hold it off to the Side. I can manage my anger real easy. We can have a conversation. Look at me. I can manage my anger. I'm not angry. No, I got this. Well, the longer I hold on to this now I'm using both hands to hold the cup.

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Well, now my life has kind of stopped.

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I can still hold it off to the side. It's causing me a little bit of pain, but I got this. Now I'm holding the coffee cup right in front of my face. My life has stopped. It's all I can think about. It's all I can talk about. I'm missing opportunities. I'm missing cues from the grandkids, because all I can think about is the anger. The system is designed to help you release the anger. Now, everybody listening to this on a 10 scale, with 10 being unforgivable dumpster fire and one being the easiest people in the world to forgive, y'all are thinking of your number tens. And that's the problem. When you see the word forgiveness, when somebody sees the title of this episode, they're going to think about their number 10 and go, oh, wow, I don't want to forgive. That's totally fair. And you don't have to forgive your number tens. I'm the only one that'll tell you that. Because there's a lot of other people, places and things. And I did say places and things. So hold on to that before you even get to that number 10. We start with the easy ones and we work our way up. That's part of the method. Yeah. Let's talk about some of those techniques and strategies for grandparents that are in this situation.

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Well, do you know how when you're in an airplane and something happens and the oxygen masks come down, those yellow masks? Yes. And everybody says, put your mask on first and then your loved ones.

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This is what I want you to do. I want you to take care of your own issues first, and then you can teach it to everybody else, if by example, because you're going to start to get happier and they're going to start to notice the change in energy. Or you can actually teach them the method. Part of the method is Einstein did say, energy is neither created nor destroyed. It just transforms from one thing into another. So when you get angry, what do you think happens? It leaves your mouth and it dissipates in the universe.

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Sadly, it does not. It hangs in your energy field. And Einstein also correctly said that everything, including this microphone in front of me, everything has energy around it. So the special sauce to the whole method is, you Might have forgiven everybody in your past. And you're sitting here listening to this saying, well, I have forgiven everybody. I'm good. You didn't forgive the energy around the person, which is why it's probably still hanging out in your head. Forgiveness. For me, the definition means I want you out of my head.

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Bottom line, I want you out of my head. I want you to stop thinking about you. Just because I forgive you doesn't mean I want a relationship with you. I probably don't. Just because I forgive you doesn't mean you were right. I'm not giving you a pass.

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I'm not giving in. You're still wrong. And you're still a dumpster fire as far as I'm concerned. Forgiveness means I want you out of my head. You can also forgive dead people, to be perfectly blunt, because it doesn't matter where they are or where they're not. They're still living in your head. You can forgive those people, too. And part of the process. I'm a very simple soul, so it's a very simple mantra. I forgive the person, the energy around the person. I forgive myself, the energy around myself, and the energy around the whole thing. So what I want everybody to do is I want you to sit down with a pen and a piece of paper, or if you're younger and listening to this laptop or phone. All roads lead to Rome. Don't care.

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And I want you to have a very quiet moment, if that's even possible for you. And I want you to write down all the people you think you need to forgive. No judgment. Write them down. Just write them down. Whatever forms into your mind. And I want you to rank them from 1 to 10, and 10 being a dumpster fire.

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And we're going to talk about the dumpster fires in a minute. How to forgive the unforgivable. And I want you to. You could have 20 number fives. I don't care. You could have. You can skip number three. Doesn't matter to me. And then you're going to start with the ones, and you're going to work your way up the list. You're going to do this before bed because your body heals itself when it's sleeping. And I don't want you to do more than ten at a time. And there's a science behind that. For all the naysayers in there, let's.

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Talk about our intuition and how forgiving these people in our lives plays into this.

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Your intuition is when you're sitting there writing your list, your gut men call it their gut. Women call it intuition. Your gut is going to say, I have to forgive this person. And your brain is going to talk you out of it. And your brain is going to say, well, I already did forgive them, so I'm not going to put them on the list. Your intuition, that little bird in your shoulder. The little bird in your shoulder is another one that I wrote. And the little bird understands exactly who you need to forgive. Now, a lot of people say anger is toxic. Let's get into some of the science. I really like the how. I don't mind doing things, but I really want to know how. Don't tell me just to forgive.

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I want to know how. And don't tell me to forgive and forget.

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I'm from New York City originally. Your girl's not forgetting anything.

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And there might be a magical unicorn person somewhere on the planet that can magically forgive people. I'm not your girl. It's not going to happen. But what I can promise you is this method will remove the emotional charge. So when you see this memory, you're not going to think good, you're not going to think bad, you won't care. So trust that intuition when you're writing your list. Trust your intuition when you're creating it. And whatever comes out, let it come out. A friend of mine wrote a little red wagon in her list. She had no memory of a little red wagon. She had no idea why she had to forgive the darn thing, but she did.

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You can forgive people, places and things. You can forgive buildings, you can forgive anything. And the energy around these things. There was a study done by a Japanese researcher and it's called the Japanese Water Study. You can Google it, it's right online. I'm very familiar with it. And his name was Masumoto something. I can never remember his last name, but I'll simplify it for the audience. What he did is he took several containers of water. One container he spoke wonderful, loving, gorgeous words to, treated it really well. The other container of water he spoke hate to it.

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Horrible, nasty words. Froze the water, put it under a microscope. The water he spoke loved to have these beautiful crystal formations. And the water he said nasty things to.

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Black and brown, crusty, nasty looking formations. That's right online. Why am I telling you this? Your body is 98% water. So when your self talk is bad or you're angry and you're holding on to this anger and bitterness and the grudges and the hate, what do you think you're doing to the water cells? In your own body. That's why anger is toxic. You're also turning the energy around your body, which is exactly like the law of gravity.

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It's going to work whether you believe it in it or not. It's also changing the energy around your body. So as you forgive, starting with the easy ones, utilizing your intuition, when you write your list, you're going to start to change. Your energy is going to start to change, and everybody's going to notice, including your grandkids. They're going to look at you and say, you're different today. Many of them, because these kids are really smart, and they're going to look at you and say, what did you do differently? You feel different, you look different? Did you get a haircut? Well, no. You started to forgive people, and you're starting to feel better. You're starting to notice things again, and it's going to Change your life 100%. I know that a lot of people that are listening probably struggle with trusting intuition. Yeah. And if we go back to our early childhoods, many of us were told that. I remember walking up to my grandmother one day and telling her that I had decided what I was going to be when I grew up, which was an artist. And she looked at me very sweetly. I was very close with my grandmother, and she said, honey, you don't want to be an artist. And she went on to tell me why. Well, immediately, because these were people that I trusted. I thought, oh, I'm not going to be an artist when I grow up. So we've been told not to believe or trust our intuition. That's right. How do you talk about that to people when you're our age? Because I am 63. When I was growing up in the 70s, I was told, especially in business, to trust your head, not your heart. Your heart's going to lead you the wrong way. Trust your brain. Your brain knows the direction, which is completely backwards and absolutely wrong. Your heart is what you should be trusting. Your intuition is what you should be trusting. And God forbid you show a smidgen of intuition and they slapped it. You're crazy as a bedbug sticker on your forehead, and they wanted to give you meds or put you in the funny farm because, oh, my God, you're hearing voices in your head. You must be schizophrenic or something. I hear. I heard voices in my mind. I'm not schizophrenic and I'm not crazy.

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Everybody on this planet has intuition. You see it, you feel it, you Know it or you just sense it? Everybody, 10 out of 10, we all have it. But most of us, especially the baby boomers, we were all taught that this is not true. We were all taught to ignore it. And I'm here to tell you it's absolutely true. There's a lot to life that you haven't been taught, and it's just a matter of paying attention to whatever method you use. For example, can you see your childhood bedroom in your mind right now?

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Yes. Okay. Can you see your bed in the color of the walls?

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I know. The wallpaper. Can you see it?

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Yes. That's clairvoyance. Now, it doesn't mean you're going to see a Stephen King ghost walk through the wall right now, what that means is you see the answers.

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That's how the little bird in your shoulder talks to you. You see the answers on the computer in a newspaper article for anybody who still reads newspapers. You see it in nature. You actually see it with your eyes. I hear it sounds just like my own voice in my own mind.

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Some people feel it. You shake somebody's hand, it just feels off. And they're saying the right things, they're dressed right. Maybe their resume, maybe you're hiring them. Everything checks out. Just feels wrong. I mean, really wrong.

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And sometimes you talk yourself out of it. You hire the person and everything went wonky, didn't it? Because you didn't listen to your intuition. And you said, I knew I shouldn't have done that. Yeah, of course your intuition told you to. You knew you shouldn't have done it immediately. That's intuition.

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I know. Having read a little bit about you and going back to your entrepreneurial past. Yeah. That you always knew that you were intuitive and you used that intuition to make judgments in business, but that you didn't want to talk about it because of the woo woo factor that was involved. Exactly right.

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How did embracing your intuition transform your professional, but especially your personal life? Once I figured out what I could do, I was never alone again. It was like the angels, and God was my new business partner.

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How did I know to join the independent concierge industry? Because I heard it, I felt it. How did I know to write a book about it?

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Because I was told to write a book and then proceeded to argue at the ceiling because I'd never written a book before. And I argued with the voice. I said, no, you're crazy. It's like, no, you need to write a book. It's like, I am schizophrenic. I'm in conversation with myself. I'm alone in my office, but I was never alone again. And I learned very quickly to translate the guidance I got for people, because I get guidance whether I want to or not. I get messages for people. And I learned very quickly to flip the language so I could give the advice. And they didn't know what I was doing because I'd use filler words like, have you ever thought of. You know, it'd be good for you. This. You know, here's some advice. It's. It's a little out of left field. And when I hit, really, the nail in the head, they kind of look at me and say, how could you possibly know that? And I'd say, experience. Been around the sun a couple times. A lot of water under the bridge. Been doing this a while. I had a whole toolbox filled with words that I could cover my tracks. And the concierge industry, many of them, to this day, don't know how intuitive I am. I do not use the word psychic. You will never hear that come out of my mouth. Because when you hear the word psychic, you think of a grifter, a crystal ball.

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No disrespect to gypsies, but, you know, that's what you think of.

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And everybody on the planet is intuitive.

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It's not just me. I just figured it out in the 70s.

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But everybody can do this. And our generation is a little unique because we were legit, told to stop it. You didn't see an imaginary friend. You didn't see your late grandmother.

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You're crazy. We were taught this from the time we were kids. Don't trust your heart. Trust your head. And this generation, it's. It was wrong. The generations behind us are testing the waters a little bit more. Your grandkids are testing the waters a little more, and they're a little bit more open than we were, because you're not telling your grandkids these things like our parents told us. I would really like to speak to the listeners today about maybe a couple of strategies that grandparents could use to tap into the needs of their grandchildren.

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I myself have listened more to my intuition when it's come to helping these kids who have very diverse needs.

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I listen to the experts that I speak with, and that has helped me a lot as well. But let's talk about maybe a couple of strategies that we can use to do that. Katherine, what a fun question.

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Okay, I got two for you. The first one is I want you to. Utilizing my book and the methods. I have the audiobook, the Paperback, it's all on Amazon, there's worksheets in there, blah, blah, blah, the whole thing. But I want you to use my step by step system and start forgiving people.

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And I want you to start with the number ones and I want you to keep going. Only do 10 at a time because I'm a little bit of an overachiever. So when my friends and I came up with this method, there's three of us, we all went back and we decided to do it before bed. And I had a list of like 50 people and places and things. And I said, this is going to be great. I'm going to be like a phoenix rising from the ashes. Tomorrow morning I'm going to wake up and I'm going to be a brand new person. I'm forgiving my past, I'm going to dump the whole thing. Didn't end up the way I wanted it to because I spent the next three days in bed with what everybody thought was a stomach flu. Remember the Japanese water study?

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I tried. My cells tried to turn too fast and my body couldn't keep up with the energy. So I really only want you to do ten at a time and do it right before bed. And most people, when they're forgiving, they get really, really, really tired. That's usually what happens. Some people are in the bathroom, you didn't eat a piece of bad fish. It's just your body losing some of the anger. And you really legitimately, absolutely are going to feel much better.

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Now, when it comes to the other method, I actually want you to try and do some guided writing. And this is what I to teach everybody when they want to tap into their intuition. Remember, you either see it, feel it, know it, or just sense it. Right. The people who know it just, they're the hardest to teach. I have a friend who is what they call clear, cognizant. I am that too. And one minute you don't know it and the next minute you do. And they're very hard to teach that that's intuition because, you know, they're usually very intellectual and they're thinking, well, my brain just kind of spit that out. Sometimes it did, sometimes it was a little burn on your shoulder just giving you the information. So I want you to sit down with a pad of paper and a pen. Same pad of paper, same pen, different exercise. And instead of writing your list of all the people you need to forgive, I want you to clear your mind as best as you can. Some of us can't clear our mind and that's fine. And I want you to ask a question.

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I really don't care what. The question. Why is the sky blue? Should I have coffee or tea? It doesn't matter. Make it a very simple question. It could be a yes or no answer. Those are brilliant, too.

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Whatever words form in your mind after you ask the question, write it down. No judgment. Write it blind. Don't even pay attention to what you're writing down. Now, for those. You might see the answer. Laura, you're going to probably see the answer. You might see the coffee, you might see the tea. Write down what. Whatever images form in your mind. Some of you are empaths, meaning you feel your way through life. Or what are you feeling when you ask that question? Are you hot? Are you cold? What are you feeling? Write down the feeling. Maybe you'll see a color. Write down the color. Maybe you'll just know something. Write down whatever forms in your head and then ask another question. And before you know it, you'll be having a conversation and you will be tapping into it. It's a really cool exercise. And if you don't, it. And I get all the people. I get this all the time.

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Well, I tried your exercise and it didn't work because my brain just didn't. It didn't have anything in it. Okay, I want you to sit down and say, I forgive myself for not being able to do this exercise and the energy around it. I'm actually very serious. And do the same thing, you know, with your number 10.

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Unforgivable. I forgive myself for not being able to forgive. And the energy around this thought. Let's talk about those unforgivable people that everybody's thinking about. That we've been dancing. It's like the elephant in the room, right? Okay. There's a reason why I call it a dumpster. There are things in the world that are 100% unforgivable. And that's fair. They really are. There are people in this world that are unforgivable, but it's still tripping you up in your head. So I want you to forgive the other things within the memory.

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Let's say. Let's use an example that I always use. You're driving.

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You come to. You're driving to work or driving wherever you're going. And you stop at a red light, and your grammar school is on the corner. And you look at the grammar school, and all of a sudden you remember when you were bullied. So by the time you get to your destination, you're grumpy you don't even know why you're grumpy. You're just grumpy. And you're cutting everybody's heads off.

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It's because your brain took you back, you know, 30, 40 years, right? So what do you do? I want you to forgive the energy within that memory. And you would forgive the school building, the energy around the building. You would forgive the table, the desk, the chair, the park, the bench, the people that stood around and didn't help you. And the energy around these people.

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I forgave chemo, the energy around chemo. I forgave the chemo chair. I forgave the doctors. I forgave everything when it came to breast cancer, it's how I got through it. I forgave my past, and I forgave 1974.

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Why? That's the year that I tried to commit suicide. Now, I picked out the people in that memory and forgave everybody, but it was still tripping me up, and I thought, I need to forgive the year. So I forgave the actual year. And the energy around the year is the last thing. And now I can look back into my past and see pockets of love and pockets of laughter. I can regurgitate the nasty if you want me to, but I can see the love that was there all along and the adults that were there to help me along the way. It changes your perspective. You're kind of changing your past. And your grandkids are going to notice because they see everything, and they're going to notice that you're changing.

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And it's a method you can teach to them really easily. I want to remind people this information is also in the book, the Ultimate Path to Forgiveness. Yes, it is.

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Let's talk about that, about how we can empower ourselves and our grandchildren through the challenges that they face using some of what you've already given us. Well, if they come home from school and they're angry at somebody, you could easily say, well, you don't. You know, if they can't forgive the person they're mad at, say, well, let's forgive other things that happen during the day. Let's forgive.

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Tell me about what happened. Okay, maybe they could forgive some of the kids that were standing around poking fun at them. Maybe they're mad about their homework. Okay, well, let's forgive the homework and let's forgive the book and let's forgive the teacher and the energy around these things. That's true forgiveness. You can forgive politicians. You could forgive the war in the Middle east and the energy around it, is it going to do anything to the Middle East? Absolutely not. It's going to do an awful lot for you because if you're watching the news every night and you're getting angry, you can forgive everything that's on the news, including the tv and the energy around the tv. Everything is forgivable. Everything is forgivable. And it's going to start. And the reason I want you to start with the easy ones is because it's going to start to change your life and you're going to start to see the benefits. And then once you've gotten through the method, then you could teach your grandkids, and you can. The younger they are, it's probably the better because the younger ones, really, they have no reason to not believe you. The rest of us are jaded and we're going to poke holes in it, but the younger ones will really take to it, and they're going to take to it very quickly. And these kids will avoid all the crap and the water under the bridge that you and I have been saddled with.

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We have a fun thing in our family. I don't think I really knew what I was doing when I started doing it, but we'll pull pain out of us inside, and it'll be like these big, strong ropes sometimes. And one of us will be pulling the door open. And we'll open the door and we throw them outside and have to slam the door really quickly before they get back in. And they love getting into those roles. I can see doing some of that action. Work with them in this type of. Process and just add forgiveness in who's on the other side of the rope? Well, this is Susie. She really hurt me. Well, why don't we forgive Susie and the energy around Susie, I forgive you, Susie. I forgive the energy around you. It's a very simple poem. You don't have to hold crystals unless you want to. You don't have to dance around the room or burn any sage, unless, of course, that's your thing and you want to. That's fine with me. I'm a very simple soul, and it's a very simple process. It's really just a simple poem. I sit in the middle of my bed and I imagine the person as I knew them. And I suggest you start from the sandbox and you work your way up to. To present day.

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And I imagine the person in front of me as I knew them then, not the adult now. It was like 40, 50 years ago. And if I need to say something I do. I tell them what I want to tell them and then I say my mantra. I put my hand on my heart because it's really. The words are just for the humans, to be honest. It's the energy behind your words. And after you say the mantra, I want you to check in with your body. There's worksheets in there. A yellow pad of paper works too. Are you still mad or do you feel better?

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Are they still a number three? Did you move it down to a two or. Which happens a lot. Did they bump up to a 7? Because this is like the layers of an onion.

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You're going to peel back those first layers and the brain is a phenomenal tool that protects you.

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So as you peel back the layers, your brain's going to go, oh, they're ready for this. And they're going to open one of those back closets in the back of your brain and memories are going to form and you're going to start to remember things that you didn't remember before because you've peeled back some of the onion. So this is a marathon. It is not a sprint.

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Many people will call this shadow work. And it's going to take a minute. You can't get a number 10 person down to a one overnight. It's going to take a second. It took me months to get my parents from A10 to forgivable and in a forgivable range. I really think it's like a 1, 2 or 3. Those are forgivable, but it took me a while to get them down there. Can you share some examples about how this work that you've done with embracing intuition and exercising forgiveness has changed people's lives? My son, one of my sons, is a federal law enforcement officer.

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On my website, I have to protect his identity. I just have

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30 in the morning, woke me up out of a dead sleep. He was 27, 26 at the time, Something like that. I'm not sleeping. I've tried everything. I can't sleep and I've tried drugs, I've, you know, the sleep aid type of things. He's tried, he's tried everything. He tried sleep apps. He tried.

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He said, I am at the end of my rope. And he said, I understand why people commit suicide. And he said, I'm not going to, but I get it because I will do anything you tell me to do.

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So I have a few talents and I'm not going to mention them here because It'll stretch people's brains too hard. But I did lead him through forgiveness, and I led him through a couple of really core forgiveness routines.

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And once he forgave some of the shadows of his past, he was sleeping again and he actually was in a relationship again. So this method 100% works.

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100%. I believe you. Well, we've covered a wonderful section of what I'd like to speak with you about, and I think this information will be very helpful because these issues are getting in the way of families and children living healthy lives. And I believe, and this is only something I've really learned through going through this experience myself because it brings up a lot for me. There are a lot of triggers that have gotten brought up with me having these children and changing some things. Forgiveness, healing of all kinds have changed my life. They never would have happened if it hadn't been for the children. And I have a lot more work to do.

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So I appreciate your insight and I know that I will be utilizing some of the suggestions that you've given us today. So thank you, Catherine. Oh, it's my pleasure. And one little extra thing.

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When you're writing your list, don't forget to put your own name down there. Forgiving yourself is incredibly important. Very important. Thank you.

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And if you. Compartment. I can never pronounce this word.

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Compartmentalize, I think, I don't know why I stumble across that word every time I say it. I forgave myself by compartmentalizing my life. I looked at the teenage Catherine as a separate person outside of myself, and I looked at her life and I realized she did the best she could with the tools she could, had, and she survived and created a personality so she could survive. And I can forgive that. And I went through 20 something Catherine and 30 something Catherine. And that's actually ultimately how I forgave myself because there's water under the bridge. We're not perfect. And there's stuff in your life that you need to forgive yourself for. So make sure you put your own name down there. But you may have to do it memory by memory or decade by decade. Catherine Our listeners can find out more information about you and your workshops and your resources through your website. Correct? Correct. Now there I'm stumbling over Words. It's Catherine Giovanni.com. and thanks to my mother, my first name is spelled a little odd. Thanks, Mom. K A T H A R I N E Giovanni. Com. And you can go to Amazon to get all of my books. And most of them have an ebook, audiobook, and paperback available and I will. Be putting a link to your website in the show notes.

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Thank you so much. Thank you, Katherine. Thanks for having me. It was fun.

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Thanks for joining us today for another episode of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Nurturing Through Adversity.

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