As creatives, we carry more than our scripts, edits, or pitches. We carry experiences—collaborations that went sideways, rejections that stung, betrayals that cut deep. These can live inside us longer than we realize. What often goes unsaid is this: forgiveness is not about forgetting what happened. It is about changing your relationship to what happened so it no longer dictates your future work.

The Difference Between Forgiving and Forgetting

One of the most persistent myths is that forgiveness requires erasure. That to truly forgive, you must act as if the pain never happened, is not that bad, or worse, that it was somehow acceptable. This belief keeps many from even trying to forgive.

Forgiveness does not mean condoning bad behavior, ever. It means acknowledging the experience while refusing to let it control you. You remember, though not with attachment. That distinction shifts memory from a trigger into a teacher.

Forgiveness allows wounds to become wisdom.

My Personal Release

Years ago, I trusted a creative partner with a project that meant the world to me. I saw it as a big break. That trust was betrayed, and I was iced out of the project I had put together. For a long time, I kept replaying every detail, convinced that holding on would protect me from being hurt again or somehow bring justice. Neither was true. I got stuck—caught in a loop that drained my creative energy and blurred my vision.

What finally helped was writing. I put everything on paper—the anger, the disappointment, the questions. I let it pour out until there was nothing left in me. Then I lit a candle and burned the pages. That ritual marked my choice to stop carrying the hurt and resentment like a bag of rocks.

The memory still exists. The difference is that it no longer controls how I show up to my work or in my relationships.

Reframing for Creative Freedom

If you have ever thought:→ “I cannot forgive because I cannot forget,”

try instead:→ “I remember what happened and choose to stop carrying it.”

This reframe frees your attention for your next project, your next draft, your next collaboration.

Your Forgiveness Invitation

Now, how do you move this mental and emotional shift from idea into your daily creative life? This is where practice becomes perspective.

Each month, I offer a way to turn the insights I share from words into your lived experience. These invitations are inspired by my book Take a Shot at Happiness: How to Write, Direct & Produce the Life You Want, where I encourage readers to use camera phone photography and reflective journaling to explore happiness and wellbeing.

Write to Release

Spend ten minutes writing a letter to someone who caused you pain in your life—whether it is a collaborator who dismissed your work, a partner who broke trust, or an executive who made you feel unseen. You will not send it, so have at it. Say what you wish they understood and what you are ready to release. When finished, fold the paper and intentionally destroy it.

This act is about your freedom, not theirs.

Photo Op

Take a picture of something that has endured—scarred yet still standing. A weathered wall, a tree marked by lightning, a stone smoothed by water. Let this image represent resilience without erasure, much like the projects and experiences that shape you.

Action Opportunity

Look at your image and ask yourself: What lesson still remains?

Then write one sentence of forgiveness—not to excuse the past, instead to create peace now.

Your Reflection Questions

Is there something in your creative work you are still carrying—a failed pitch, a soured collaboration, a story you could not tell the way you hoped?

What would it feel like to remember it differently—without the weight of resentment—so space opens for the story you are meant to tell next?

While forgiveness does not erase what happened, it can inform how you move forward. That change might be the key that unlocks your best ideas.

Do not waste your creative genius on what is already behind you. Focus on the work that still wants to be created.

For-giving is for-living. This is your creative freedom.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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