Hi there,
Welcome to this meditation for forgiveness.
So this meditation is going to utilise visualisation and affirmations in order to find forgiveness for someone who has perhaps broken your trust,
Hurt or harmed you in some way,
Or who you feel the need to forgive for some other reason.
Really could be anything.
So that's just an outline of what we're going to do today.
But just before we really get started I'd like to advise this.
When you forgive someone in the way that I'm going to help you with today,
There needs to be at least some prospect,
Some possibility that doing so will repair your relationship with that person.
More simply,
If you forgive someone but they continue to abuse your trust and to abuse that forgiveness,
It's usually best to try and move yourself away from them because then it's a toxic relationship.
So this forgiveness that we're going to practice today is really useful when there's been a schism of some sort or generally a breakdown of trust or communication.
Finding forgiveness for someone can help you to let go of grudges and can help your relationship to flow more smoothly in the future without that obstacle in the way.
Forgiveness can be very difficult sometimes,
So don't worry or lose heart if it doesn't seem to be easy at first.
Just keep trying and keep in mind what I've just said.
You're really the best judge here,
So you'll need to exercise your own judgement and indiscretion.
So that's why we're doing this and that's what you need to bear in mind before you begin today.
Most of the time forgiveness is worthwhile,
But in toxic relationships where it's not reciprocated it's usually best to withdraw yourself as far as possible from the situation.
Trust is always a two-way street.
This meditation is here to help you go your way as long as the other person is willing to go theirs.
So with that in mind,
Let's get started with today's meditation.
So I'd like you to begin your meditation with your usual process if you have one.
Starting by just breathing deeply in through the nose and out through the mouth and as I say,
Going through your usual process,
Ending up just gently closing the eyes.
Allowing the breath to come back to its normal rhythm and just resting your attention gently on that for a moment.
Now once you've reached that stage,
I'd like you to picture someone you'd like to forgive right now.
I'm assuming if you've chosen this meditation today,
Then you probably already have someone in mind.
Might even be several people or a group.
Now I'd like you to imagine that this person is mentally in front of you.
They're listening.
They're giving you their full attention and their understanding.
They won't interrupt.
They won't cut across and they won't become angry.
They're simply here to listen to what you have to say to them.
And to start with,
I'd like you just to tell them,
You hurt me.
You hurt me.
What you did harmed me.
And again,
They're just listening and understanding what you're saying.
They understand.
Now I'd like you to tell them exactly what it was that they did that hurt you and to explain to them why it hurt you.
Okay?
Now when you've finished that,
I'd like you to just tell them this.
I understand that this isn't you.
I understand that what you did came not from your heart but from a place of fear,
A place of pain,
A place of misunderstanding.
Or perhaps even a combination of several of those.
I cannot know what was in your mind when you hurt me.
But I know that it wasn't how you'd normally act.
That really you didn't mean to hurt me.
Deep down,
You are love.
You are warmth.
And I know that you care.
The fear,
Pain or misunderstanding that came into you at that moment was fleeting and superficial.
I know that it is not an intrinsic part of you.
And on a side note here,
I'd like to just mention that things like greed and selfishness also often come from this place of fear or of pain.
Fear of being without,
Pain of being without and so on.
It comes out of balance.
It becomes off kilter and it starts causing problems.
So I'd like you just to repeat one more time.
What you did came from a place of fear,
A place of pain or a place of misunderstanding.
You weren't thinking straight.
Your reason and compassion was skewed by fear or by pain or by misunderstanding.
So I forgive you.
I forgive you.
I know that you can and will be better in the future and that everybody makes mistakes.
But now for the past,
For your mistake,
I forgive you.
I forgive you.
And now I'd like you to think how this person would react to your saying this.
Hopefully it will be positive.
Perhaps they'd express thanks.
Perhaps they would simply show happiness that you've chosen to forgive them.
And then once you've seen them react in this way,
Just letting them go again now.
Now you've freed them from their mistakes and their accidental slip ups.
And you've freed yourself from that pain and that confusion that could have caused similar mistakes on your part.
You're both free.
So now just bringing the attention back to your surroundings,
Starting by listening to what sounds you can hear around you,
Focusing on the space of the room around you and the weight of the body on the chair,
The bed,
The floor,
Wherever you're sitting or lying.
And after a moment,
Just taking a big deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.
And with the out breath,
Gently opening the eyes again and just bringing a soft awareness to the space around you.
So I hope you've been able to let go of that,
To find forgiveness and ultimately to find closure with this person.
And then it will help to ease your relationship by releasing that problem,
That obstacle from it.
Thanks so much for coming along today and I hope I'll see you again soon.
