Aloha,
I'm Reverend Cindy Paulus and I wanted to talk about a very deep and important subject that we all can practice that can change our lives.
Especially if you're an empath or someone who feels very,
Very deeply and gets hurt easily.
The subject is forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a life changer.
It can immediately change your perspective,
Your outlook.
It can heal you.
It can bring you peace.
It can bring you joy and release from things that have been causing you pain and sorrow.
Forgiveness is a thing that is easily said and that we all know we should do,
But it goes so,
So deep in places that sometimes we buried so deeply that it really takes digging,
Digging deep into that part of ourself we may have buried into our shadow self that really needs to forgive.
Forgiveness is a game changer.
It truly is.
So many of us have tried hard and been hurt deeply and I think those who try extra hard are the ones that feel hurt extra hard as well.
Those who feel like they've been wronged and oftentimes really truly they have been still need to forgive.
Of course,
One example is Jesus on the cross.
Jesus on the cross said,
Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
And in the case of almost all situations where people have hurt other people,
The people who have done that don't really know what they're doing.
And that is kind of a reason why it's good to let it go and to release it and to forgive them,
Because if they don't really know what they've done to you,
They're not holding on to anything that they've done to you.
Instead,
You're left holding the ball and you holding that ball only hurts you,
Not them.
I think you may understand this,
Right?
Can you understand what I'm saying here?
It's so important to realize that we can get hurt.
We can get slighted.
We can really go through traumatic things in our life.
I did.
I've gone through many traumatic things in my life and I look back on it and I do not really on reflection all these years later think that the people who did the harm even maybe thought twice about it or if they did,
They kind of rationalized it and bared it themselves.
When you have gone through abuse,
And I went through many forms of abuse when I was young,
I went through abuse from a man who I babysat from at a young age.
And I also was raped at a young age and I also was in a situation of domestic violence where I was beat up by my husband and kicked by him and got a broken nose.
And then I also found out that he was cheating on me with a 14-year-old next door neighbor and things such as that.
And it can go on,
You know,
I'm even repeating it now.
It's like,
Ah,
But the hardest part is to all those years later,
After you unbury them,
Because I'd even buried some of the things that happened to me,
You know,
I was very young.
But after you unbury them,
To really be able to release them and to forgive them and to bless them and to let it go,
It takes a lot of work.
It can be a lifetime till you can really say,
I forgive you,
I love you,
Thank you.
Because you have to be able to do that,
Because if not,
You haven't resolved the karma that's been created.
And you certainly don't want that to come back around again.
It's a very,
Very deep practice to be able to see that someone has really hurt you and in the eyes of the world really done something very wrong,
Very clearly something wrong,
But to still be able to forgive that person.
Now,
This has been done.
This has been done.
Dr.
Gerald Jampolsky wrote a beautiful book on forgiveness that I really think is valuable.
He worked very deeply on forgiveness.
And the thing about forgiveness is that we also have to very importantly forgive ourselves.
Because we sometimes have been letting that hang around in our life and causing us sorrow and pain and limiting us.
And that is something that we really don't want to do.
Now,
There's some cases that have shown this so beautifully.
There was a story,
Of course,
You may have heard about this,
Where there was a woman in the Black Church in Charleston.
And she had this,
Well,
He was a white racist gunman,
Came in and killed her husband.
And she said that we will not let hate win.
And so she went into prison and she forgave this man that killed her son.
I thought it was her husband.
I'm sorry,
It was her son.
And she also became friends with this man and supported him once he came out of prison.
Now,
What kind of radical forgiveness is this where you could forgive someone who killed your son and forgive them to the point where you could actually face that person in prison and tell them that you forgive them and mean it to the point where you support them when they get out of prison.
Now,
That's radical forgiveness that could truly change not only your life,
But the person who was so misled and did so much damage,
That person's life was changed as well.
Now,
That's an amazing story.
But there are many stories about this kind of action that you can find,
Where people have had that opportunity to really realize what was talked about by all the great teachers,
Where someone slaps your cheek and so you turn the cheek and let them slap your cheek on the other side.
And that is so much easier said than done.
I mean,
It's one thing to know that we need to forgive someone,
But to really do that,
To really allow that to be a part of your life.
Can we go to that place to find forgiveness inside you?
And can you go deep enough inside yourself to find what it is that you need to really forgive?
You have to have courage.
You have to be courageous enough to find that deep pain that you may have buried for a long time.
And you have to go back to that situation and look at it from a place where you won't recreate that pain,
A place of the objective observer or your soul,
The place you would see it from if you were close to dying or you had died and you look back on your life and you had a life review.
Now,
This is a hard thing to do,
But you can do it.
Obviously,
There's people who have,
But to do it,
You've got to let go of whatever you've created.
It may include the story about it in your life.
It may include being a martyr.
It may include being a victim or having victim consciousness,
Because once you go through these deep situations,
You can go into victim consciousness.
So that can be a state you just go back to and define yourself by.
So that's something you need to really work on and understand.
Now,
There could be actually many courses and there are many books written just about forgiveness,
But I think you know how important it is to embrace forgiveness.
In Hawaii,
There's a practice of hoʻoponopono,
And with hoʻoponopono,
You'll find that there's this amazing gift that comes.
Originally,
With hoʻoponopono,
It was created to actually be used for family members.
It goes way back in the Hawaiian culture.
And in the Hawaiian culture,
By practicing hoʻoponopono,
Hoʻonopono,
There's two o's here,
Hoʻonoponopono,
When you get to that point where you can do that with your family members,
You will find that there is an amazing thing that really does happen.
Because in the family situation,
You actually face the person.
And when you face the person,
It means you have to actually directly relate to them and communicate with them and really mean what you say.
Now,
A lot of times we can't do that because the person who may have hurt us really badly may not be there,
Or you may not be in touch with them or able to reach with them.
You still can do it spiritually.
You can still do it from the highest place of the soul.
And when you do that from the highest place of your soul,
You understand that you're making things right.
You understand that you're bringing things back into balance.
And you understand so much when you actually go to that place of radical,
Radical forgiveness.
Now,
That's really,
Truly a beautiful,
Beautiful gift.
And you will feel the difference in your life if you can reach that place to find true forgiveness.
Let's try,
Let's just try to reach that place of forgiveness inside.
Let's just be still and quiet and go into a place of meditation.
And as I always like to do,
We just take a few deep clearing breaths,
Knowing that your breath sweeps your mind.
Breathing in and holding it and letting it go and releasing any tension in your body,
Scanning your body from your head and your eyes and your nose and your mouth and your ears,
Letting any tension go,
Going into your throat,
Your creative center and bringing everything into balance,
Releasing the tension in your shoulders and going into your torso and feeling your heart and breathing love and healing into your heart of hearts.
And letting the whole body become surrounded now in the light that is so white and pure that you are protected,
Sending that light up above you,
High,
High,
High,
So many feet high above you,
All the way up,
Up,
Up and down and through you and out through your feet,
In front of you and behind you till you're in a beautiful white protective shell of loving energy and peace and healing.
And now let's go back to our heart.
We know we're safe now.
When you can open up your heart,
Go to that place deep in your heart where you find something somewhere,
Sometime may have caused you great pain and sorrow,
Maybe closed your heart off or maybe even got to the point where you shut down feelings.
Now let's go there.
Let's go deep into that place,
Deep,
Deep,
Deep without fear,
Because love is letting go of fear.
Ah,
Deeper and deeper and deeper to that place where you may may have felt great pain and sorrow and suffering.
And if someone caused that pain and sorrow and suffering,
Imagine they are there in front of you and you are sitting in a circle with them,
Face to face with the person who caused you pain and suffering.
And now let's just look at that person's true soul and energy behind them.
And let's just be able to say clearly,
I forgive you,
I release you,
I let the pain and suffering go.
Thank you.
I love you.
And I am whole.
And now take the time to take that energy back into yourself and say,
I forgive myself for feeling the energy and whatever consequences from that pain that may have caused me sorrow and closed my heart off or my body off or my feelings off.
I forgive myself.
I release that pain and sorrow and suffering.
I am healed and I am whole.
Thank you.
I love you.
And I am whole.
And now just believe that you are able to completely forgive anyone who has done you damage,
That has caused you pain and suffering.
And truly from the highest point of your soul,
Release yourself from anything that may have caused any suffering and damage to your life.
Send that place inside you that was so hurt and send it that love that heals.
The love from the one source of all unconditional love that loves you and releases you and allow yourself to feel that love and that healing and that light.
Breathe it in,
Breathe it in and know that you are now able to believe that you are healed and you have forgiven that pain and you can release that pain.
Ah,
Now just take some time to come back to yourself and to scan your whole body again.
See if you've opened up anything that needs to be completely given love and attention.
Any part of your body,
Any part that needs healing and light and love,
Let it go to that place where you can be made completely healed and whole.
Ah,
And now believe it,
Feel it,
Release it and come back to yourself and come out of this meditation and take a moment to write down anything that has come to you when we have gone and explored this power of forgiveness.
I thank you for being so courageous to being able to forgive yourself and release yourself and for being able to make yourself whole.
God bless you,
I love you,
Take care of yourself and always remember forgiveness is so important in your life and you can do this.
It may take a few times,
It may take repeating it repeating it every day,
But you can do this and it does work.
God bless you always.
