If you often say “I’ll never forgive myself for…” or “I’ll never forgive… (fill in person, politician, organisation etc) for..”, you could be creating a mental health issue for yourself.

Being unable to forgive creates stress, obsessive thought patterns, grudges or those re-running angry internal dialogues. This prevents inner peace, and inner peace equals mental health.

Every grievance and grudge we hang onto forms a little blockage that stops the smooth flow of chi through the meridians. Those blockages can increase and create pathologies and then you can’t shake anything off, can’t forgive anything or anyone and may crave vengeance. It’s a bitter energy.

We will always run into people or forces that block progress or repress our dreams. But how we deal with that is an opportunity for personal growth.

My approach is: take the emotion out and look at correcting the underlying energetics. Unforgiveness is about Po and Hun. Po is your physical self. It is connected to your nervous system, it experiences pain and separation and generates the belief that the material world, or reality, is all there is.

Because Po is temporary it considers everything as a threat to its existence and if it dominates we attack, criticise, blame, reject. Po wants to get even, to destroy and to control.

Then we have Hun. This is the eternal, all-accepting all-loving spirit/soul side of us. If we cultivate Hun we naturally, effortlessly forgive by forgetting, because nothing sticks to us. Hun is like spiritual Teflon!

Hun is your ‘Contract with Heaven’, it shows you the way and it wants you to succeed.

It is eternal and when you’ve got that perspective, daily dramas and grievances lose their power. This is not about being submissive, or never correcting wrongs or injustices, but about balance so that all actions unfold harmoniously and are beneficial.

And it’s not like Hun is good and Po is bad, we need both. Po helps with survival in the physical world, and Hun helps with spiritual strength! The idea is help out Hun by breaking those meridian blockages down.

A rhythmic chi-cycle friendly lifestyle does this because it automatically promotes chi flow.

Chinese herbal formulas are designed for this, and DIY strategies including yoga, Qi-gong, breath techniques and anything that builds health, also does this. When chi flows freely everything changes.

When the bitter unforgiving feeling rises, or the internal arguments, cynicism or negativity creep up, you can also tap Yintang, the third eye acupuncture point in the forehead, to instantly create a mental space and avoid getting sucked in to the Po vibe.

If you’re feeling angry, bitter or vengeful focus on changing your lifestyle not your mood.

Action not concept is required. The more chi-flow activities you have underway, the more your Hun can come forward, along with your true spiritual self which always acts with honour.

Make your lifestyle medicinal with chi and one day you’ll remember that you totally forgot something that used to consume you. Chi Health Cycle is the manual for this.