Forgiving someone with whom we are angry is not as simple as the experts would like us to think.
On the one hand, we are a complicated mish-mash of childhood and adulthood experiences, learned behaviors, ways we deal with relationships, expectations and feelings.
On the other hand, there are so many factors that enter into whether we can be hurt, by whom, how and our whole interpersonal histories from way back. We are different in the way we interpret and handle things, and unique ways of relating. We have unlike expectations and conflicting opinions, and we can be different with different people.
The truth is that telling people they can just forgive if they choose is shallow advice.
Many of the books on forgiveness focus on abstract concepts such as self-actualization, enlightenment, reframing memories, self-affirmations, restoring the attitude of love, visualization, releasing the past, exhaling anger and negativity, and moving away from your role as a victim. These creative notions do not tell exactly what to do. That is why Ms. Poole wrote this book to give you simple, concrete methods of getting to forgiveness and moving on with life because hanging onto resentments can have major negative consequensces on our physical, emotional and other areas of our lives.