Welcome to a meditation for forgiveness.
Let's begin by connecting with our breath so we are clear and centered for this heart cleansing and healing practice.
Begin by coming into a comfortable seat on your cushion or chair,
Allowing the spine to be tall,
Rolling the shoulders up and back,
Dropping them away from the ears.
Begin to relax the face,
Letting your eyes close and be heavy.
Feel yourself grounded in your seat.
Bringing awareness to your breath.
As you inhale through the nose,
Set the intention to be fully present and connected to your breath throughout this practice.
As you breathe in,
Know that you are breathing in.
And as you breathe out,
Know that you are breathing out.
Feel the belly rise as you inhale.
Feel it fall as you exhale.
Notice how each breath gently flows into the next one,
Like waves in the ocean as they rise and fall,
Flowing gently back to the sea.
Bringing both hands to your heart,
Continue breathing deeply into the belly.
Notice the rhythm of your heartbeat.
Open yourself filled with light and a great love and compassion for yourself.
Give yourself a moment of gratitude for showing up.
Rest in this feeling of open awareness.
Setting yourself up to your own love.
Bringing in a sense of an open and undefended heart,
Which are both required in order to find forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a process.
So be gentle and kind with yourself.
Perhaps you're struggling to forgive yourself.
See if in this moment you can release judgment of any past mistakes,
Knowing that we are all perfectly imperfect.
When we know better,
We do better.
If you're having a difficult time forgiving someone else,
Start by forgiving yourself first,
For struggling to forgive.
Let that be okay.
This is where you are right now.
This is what it is.
And know that everything changes.
Know that in time when you're ready,
You will forgive.
You will release.
One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is to free our mind of past burdens.
And know that just because we are extending forgiveness,
It does not make the behavior of someone okay.
They may not have acknowledged our pain or told us they are sorry,
But that's okay.
We are forgiving for ourselves.
We forgive for our own wellbeing,
Our own peace of mind.
Imagine for a moment what it would feel like to be able to let go,
To release all old hurts from the past.
Sit in this feeling for a moment,
The feeling of being free from anything you may have held onto.
Know that one day you will be fully capable of releasing.
Now bring to mind any experience you feel you need to let go of.
Allow any emotions that may arise,
Such as anger,
Grief.
Track it in the body.
Breathe through it.
Allow the body and mind to release it.
Our first instinct tends to be to want to avoid difficult emotions.
See if you can orient to the experience of the emotion,
Maybe approaching it with a gentle curiosity and simply allow it to travel through you.
Maybe reflect on whether you learned any lesson.
Sometimes those that hurt us the most are our greatest teachers.
They arrive or we experience something that reveals the parts in us that we have not yet healed.
What if we thanked our experience for showing up?
And lastly,
Repeat after me with each breath these forgiveness phrases.
Breathing in,
For all the harm I have caused myself,
Consciously or unconsciously,
I forgive myself for all the harm I have caused others consciously or unconsciously.
Please forgive me for all the harm others have done to me consciously or unconsciously.
I forgive them as much as I can in this moment.
Take a moment to reflect on how this practice has made you feel.
Thank you for allowing me to hold space for you and guide you through this practice of forgiveness.
If we can accept our past as it was,
Our present moment as it is now,
We can find the openness and compassion to forgive.
To close,
I'll leave you with a quote that I say to myself often.
It's by Oprah Winfrey.
This is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.
