A Love Letter To Shame

Shame keeps us small and weighs heavily on our hearts. By turning towards the parts of ourselves that are struggling with shame and offering love and compassion instead of judgment, we begin to feel lighter and freer. This meditation will help you shed any shame you’ve been holding onto and remind you that you are worthy of love.

Transcript

Welcome,

I'm Skylar Liberty-Rose,

And today I want to share with you a love letter that I wrote to shame.

And I'd like to invite you to join me in releasing some of the shame that you've perhaps been holding onto.

Maybe from something that's happened in your life recently,

Or something that happened long ago.

Maybe there's a series of events or experiences that have attached themselves to you in the form of shame.

Before we begin,

I want you to know you are welcome in this space.

You are good enough in this space.

There's no hierarchy here,

No judgement.

You get to be here and you get to let go.

Please get comfortable and close your eyes.

If there's a particular part of your body that feels tender right now,

A place that's achy or painful,

Possibly a place where you've been storing any feelings of shame,

Then I invite you to either gently place your hand there or imagine your breath flowing to that space.

Let that space be open.

You don't need to close yourself off any longer.

Take a deep breath in.

Take a full exhale.

And then allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.

Dear shame,

I have known your heavy presence for so long now that it feels almost impossible to remember what life was like before.

In the shadows of your embrace,

I have convinced myself that I cannot be fully seen and still loved,

That I cannot step into the light without being judged or scorned or abandoned.

Under your watchful gaze,

I have crawled away from spaces I've wanted to shine in.

Because I believed that I was too tainted to be accepted.

I have measured myself and berated myself when I've looked at my life through your murky lens.

I have felt less than and too much.

I have yearned to go back and start over,

Taking different paths and making different choices that wouldn't lead me to a place where we'd meet.

I have had sleepless nights and haunted days as you've reminded me of the things that have made me feel unworthy.

But something I now know is that you,

Dear shame,

Cannot survive illumination or affection.

You cannot flourish in the embrace of light or love.

You cannot thrive where you are acknowledged or accepted.

Dear shame,

I know that your real name is fear.

I know that you are a story I've told myself.

And I am ready to let go of that story now.

Take a breath in.

Let your breath reach that tender place inside that you've kept tucked away.

When you exhale,

See if you can create more space in that tender spot.

See if you can allow more light to find its way there.

Repeat after me.

I will not keep myself small because of the opinions of others.

I will meet myself with compassion in as many moments as possible.

I can let go of the stories that aren't serving me.

I can show up exactly as I am and still be worthy of love.

Often,

Our stories of shame are reinforced because of the sheer amount of times we replay them,

The detail we add to them,

The ways we torment ourselves by combing through them,

Looking for new ways to hurt ourselves.

Something I ask myself often is this,

Who benefits from my shame?

Gently ask yourself that question now.

Who benefits from my shame?

Really allow yourself to get curious as you consider the answer.

Curiosity and compassion are powerful tools to use as we do the work of dismantling our old stories.

Remember that you can come back to this letter whenever you need to.

You can write your own letter to shame.

You can let go as many times as necessary.

Keep filling yourself up with love and affection.

I invite you to take a slow stretch to bring your awareness back to the space you're in.

In your own time,

Gently open your eyes.

Let your gaze be soft.

Let your breath be easy.

Let your awakening continue.

Thank you for joining me today,

Sending deep love and gratitude from my heart to yours.

Reviews

Beautiful message, Skylar. It cracked something open in me, helped me start releasing what I’ve been carrying since high school, even if I didn’t realize how heavy it still was.

Just lovely. A soft angle to get at long existing shame.

Didn't realize how much I needed to hear this until I did. So beyond beautiful and touching, thank you ❤️

“I can show up exactly as I am and still be worthy of love.” “Who benefits from my shame?” This really resonated with me. Thank you so much.

Powerful & a much needed, new perspective on the shame I carry.

One of the most beautiful, most powerful meditations I've done on Insight Timer. I'd give it six stars if I could. Thank you, Skylar.

This one brought tears to my eyes ❤️ thank you so much 🙏🏻

This was a special and moving meditation! I appreciated the concept of writing a letter to shame! Brilliant 💗

Powerful and moving. Thank you. Love and blessings 🩵x

Beautiful and spot on—will come back to this one. Thank you 🙏

Exactly what I needed today. Thank you so much for this.

A beautiful and much needed address to shame. Very helpful. 🌻

This reached deep inside… thank you for the release, I will be repeating this , deep gratitude to you 🙏🙏🙏

Beautiful meditation and very timely. I’ve been feeling a lot of shame surrounding my mental health and how it had affected my interactions with others. But in tending to this shame and loving and accepting these parts, it has dissipated 🤍

Thank you for inspiring me to think about my relationship with an understanding of shame in my life as I’m going through a shame spiral right now

Powerful reminder of the need

to clear and release shame. Thank you

My captor benefited and they can keep it. Thank you for helping open my eyes to this and for the release & relief. ♡

Your beautiful words touched my heart.❤️ Thank you.

This is wonderful and just what I needed. Thank you so much. I will listen to this again. 🙏

Beautiful! Quite helpful too! Thank you!