Forgiveness of Self and Others
Today’s self-love challenge is about forgiveness, forgiving others through meditation and also forgiving oneself. Forgiving yourself can release pain that no longer serves you, and it can open space within your heart for deeper love of self and for practicing giving and receiving love.
I have a couple of meditations I’d like to suggest for you to consider as today's practice of forgiveness towards yourself and others. When considering the forgiveness meditation, connect with your heart space, and make sure you are ready to release and let go. If the time has not come yet to forgive a certain person in your life, pick someone who does not carry a heavy weight at this time, and go back to these tools when you feel it is time.
The most recent example I can think of from my personal experience that I had a hard time forgiving is the person whom I felt caused me a lot of pain last year. Conceptually I understood that it was better for me to forgive, but it took me a while to be able to fully do it. In addition, I was carrying shame and guilt for having allowed myself to be in a situation that such a thing could happen. I had to find the strength and courage to forgive and nurture my own self for what had happened, so that I could be at peace and open myself to other more meaningful relationships.
When you did yesterday’s exercise, did anything come up for you that you felt like you were blaming yourself for? One of the things that I may blame myself for at times, is not being further along in certain areas of my life. I’m constantly going back to forgiving myself, and to practicing the understanding that it is fine to be wherever I am and that with the lessons I learn each day, I can make different decisions that honor both who I am in this moment and who I am becoming.
The first meditation that I recommend is to repeat a mantra that is part of the Ho’oponopono, an ancient Hawaiian practice of forgiveness and reconciliation: “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.” I had learned that the statement needs to be repeated in the mind three times, and the energy between you and the person you have in mind shifts. I repeat the same mantra to forgive myself as well. The book “Zero Limits - The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More” by Joe Vitale and Ihaleakala Hew Len, has a different approach to it. They discuss the need to use this mantra all the time, thanks to teachings by Morrnah Simeona, as a way to speak with the divine, to clear memories, to return to zero, and to create space for inspiration to come through more easily. If you would like to learn the deeper meaning of the mantra, and of Ho’oponopono you may want to read the book, or visit the Foundation of I website.
I first read a portion of the second meditation I would like to recommend, in the book “The Seeker’s Guide – Making Your Life a Spiritual Adventure” by Elizabeth Lesser. The meditation is called “A Forgiveness Meditation” from the book “Healing into Life and Death” by Stephen Levine. I found this meditation very helpful. I was not able to reach the author to ask permission to reprint it here, but you can read the full meditation by following this link. The first part of the meditation gives you steps to forgive someone else, the second part presents steps to ask for forgiveness, and the third part is to forgive yourself.
If you are not ready to forgive someone else or don’t have anyone you feel you need to forgive, see if it would be helpful to start working on forgiving yourself. Remind yourself how when the actions, decisions, behaviors that you feel need forgiveness happened, you may not have known better. Now that you do, you can make different choices. And if it helps, end the meditation with giving yourself a hug.
If you use other self-forgiveness techniques, please feel free to post them here.
Leave a Reply