First,
Welcoming yourself to this meditation on forgiveness and compassion for yourself.
Do so by allowing your body to sit or to lie comfortably in a position that you can remain relatively still in for the next 15 minutes or so.
And first,
Allowing yourself to contact your breath,
To feel the sensation of the oxygen as it enters and as it leaves your nose.
Maybe to sense the breath on your upper lip.
Or if it's easier for you to feel the breath inside your body,
Expanding your lungs as you inhale and contracting your lungs as you exhale.
There's no need to manipulate or control the breath here,
Just witnessing it,
Bringing yourself into this meditation with awareness.
And with that awareness,
With that recognition that there is oxygen outside of you and that it is available.
Perhaps to opening your mind to any degree to the idea that grace,
Just like air,
Is available to you.
Awareness doesn't have to be cultivated,
Simply recognized.
It's already yours.
Noticing the sensations or emotions or thoughts that might arise as you hear this,
This wisdom,
Without judging or wishing them to be different,
Just observing.
Feeling into the idea that grace is already yours,
Doesn't need to be earned.
Just like air,
There is enough to go around.
Just like oxygen.
You can take as much of it in at any time.
If it would feel comfortable to you to take your hand to your own heart,
Connecting with that space of giving and of receiving love,
Feel free.
And as you continue to gently touch the breath with your awareness,
With your hand on your heart,
Allow for any sensations that arise to do so,
To the extent that you can,
Welcoming and inviting them in.
You may have chosen this meditation because you're working toward compassion for yourself,
Demanding forgiveness for yourself,
For hurt or harm or pain,
Injury that you may have caused yourself or others in the past.
To the extent that you can,
Honor yourself for your willingness to show up to this meditation.
Honor yourself with gratitude that this matters enough to you.
And may the act of you simply showing up be a step toward the path of remembering your worthiness of grace.
Showing yourself now to call to mind and to heart those who you may have harmed and hurt,
Caused pain,
Those who you may have betrayed,
Rejected or abandoned out of your own fear,
Your own pain,
Your own confusion,
Your own sense of separation.
Allow yourself to feel any sensation or emotion that arises as you remember and feel fully into the consequences of your choices and of your behaviors.
And to the extent that you can,
Allow yourself now to remember who you were then,
How confused you may have been,
How hurt,
How isolated,
How separated.
Allow yourself to remember now that the decisions you made then,
The choices you made then,
Were coming from your own confusion.
They were coming from a lack of understanding.
They were coming from fear.
To the extent that you can now,
Allow yourself to see your own heart as tender and as sensitive and as vulnerable.
Allow yourself to witness that by evidence of the sensations of guilt,
Of remorse,
Of shame that are arising with you now as you consider the ways that you've caused other people pain.
You are no longer that choice.
Today,
In this present moment,
You are not that.
Because of your humanity,
You miss the mark.
Because of your humanity,
You caused pain and suffering.
Because of your humanity,
You have hurt others.
And because of your humanity,
You are worthy of forgiveness for those past hurts.
For every human being is capable of causing hurt and harm.
It's part of the human condition to make mistakes.
It's what connects us to one another and what creates empathy and compassion for each other,
The willingness to acknowledge our own humanity.
Allow yourself now to recognize your own humanity and to see that another aspect of being human is the potential for growth,
That everything changes.
And so have you.
Since the time that you made the choice to cause pain and suffering for others,
You've become anew.
Every single time you exhale,
It's an opportunity to forgive.
And every new inhale,
A reminder of this present moment.
And so to the extent that you can,
Breathing in now to this here presence,
Recognizing that the extent that you hold yourself into the prison of the past,
You are not available for the possibilities of here and of now.
And as you can hold your tender heart with compassion,
To the extent that you're ready,
You can offer yourself forgiveness.
Forgiveness does not mean you condone your decisions.
It simply means you're letting go of beating yourself up and holding yourself back there and instead allowing yourself an opportunity to be here now where you can connect,
Where you can bless,
Where you can serve,
Where you can create,
Where you can become whole,
Where you can know your worthiness and see the worthiness inside of others.
To the extent that you are ready,
Offering yourself full and complete forgiveness.
If you find that thoughts arise that diminish your readiness or your worthiness,
Allow for them to come.
Allow the sensations that accompany them to arrive and invite them to go.
Forgiveness is a process and a practice.
Again and again returning back,
Pointing your heart in the direction of forgiveness,
Which is outside of you and available to you any moment that you're ready to receive it.
Taking once more a very deep breath in,
Exhaling it all the way out.
Feeling once again yourself seated or lying on the floor or in a chair on a couch,
Recognizing yourself as held,
Held and supported by that which you perceive as divine.
And in so doing,
Acknowledging that the only perfect is that which created and generated each of us.
That we as humans are imperfect and are capable of making mistakes,
Errors,
Causing great pain and suffering in others.
Recognizing however that that which created you,
That which you perceive as God,
Has already forgiven you.
You are already forgiven.
You are holy and completely and unconditionally loved.
And there's nothing you need to do to deserve that.
Unconditional love is your birthright.
You absolutely have to open your heart to any extent to receive.
And now thanking yourself once again for your willingness to come toward this meditation and prayer,
For your willingness to offer yourself compassion to any degree that you can today.
In recognition of that attempt,
In recognition of the invitation for your own heart to open up to compassion,
For the more you can offer yourself compassion,
The more you can extend it to those around you who also deserve forgiveness and the opportunity to be seen in their innocence of who they are today,
Just like you.
If your hand is still on your own tender and sensitive heart,
Leave it there as long as you like.
Slowly,
As you're ready,
Bringing your body,
Your mind,
And your whole soul out of this meditation and into your day.
May you know grace,
May you walk inside forgiveness.
May you be at peace.
