49 - Guided Meditation for Forgiveness

This Guided Meditation for Forgiveness stands alone and also supplements the previous guided meditation on Forgiveness and Release as well as podcast 47 on Forgiveness.  In this guided meditation you are guided to relax, picture the person that you want to forgive, feel what comes up for you, let it burn off a bit and then soak up the healing power of your Being, Divine, etc.  As you relax into your healing depth and all tensions, hurts, thoughts, etc. release you begin to see the person who has hurt you shrink into a small child.  You see their wounds and gain a perspective on why they have acted the way they have.  From there, if you chose, you let the love you are now overflowing with flow into their wounds and heal them.  You look them in the eyes and say, " I forgive you".  Now you chose how to interact with this person or not.  Do not drive and only listen when you are sitting or lying down fully attentive.  You can stop anytime if this meditation arouses too many deep feelings.

These podcasts are here to support your personal path of awakening whatever that might be. I feel they are most powerful when listened to in sequence from podcast one forward because each is built on the last. Though they, also, all stand on their own. If anything does not resonate, please disregard it and follow your heart. All my podcasts and website are free. Enjoy!

Though I am a psychotherapist, and these podcasts are offered to be spiritually helpful, they are not psychotherapy. If psychotherapy is ever needed, please reach out to a psychotherapist.

www.williamecooper.wordpress.com for more support. You may, especially, enjoy the short contemplations and the resource page which gives you some supportive material.

Transcript

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Hello, this is William Cooper. Welcome to Awakening Together, Relaxing into Happiness. I trust you're doing well. Today, I'd like to share another guided meditation on forgiveness with you. In this meditation, I will be using the term divine or your higher nature or something like that. And what I mean is the infinite, which is you. That's your being. It could be called the divine. You can look at these things in so many different ways, but I don't want to be hung up on the language with this meditation. So when I use something like this, just use in your own mind whatever word fits you best, whatever feels best for you. Please don't be operating a car or heavy equipment or doing anything but this meditation, because it's best that you focus. And it could be a little bit dangerous for you to close your eyes, relax, and let go while you're doing anything like driving a car. In this meditation, I'll be asking you to be in touch with some deep feelings that have come up when you've been betrayed, hurt, or something like this. And if these feelings ever get to be too much or something that you're not ready for, simply open your eyes and the meditation is over. Look around the room. Notice you're okay. Take a deep breath and you're fine. Just opening your eyes will stop the meditation. So it's easy. It's safe. You just take care of yourself. This meditation is pretty gentle, but we do get in touch with some feelings. So take it at your own pace. After all, you can always do this meditation at another more suitable time for yourself. Ready? Okay. Before we start, I'd like you to squeeze some of the tension out of your body. Just tighten your body all the way from the top of your head down through the tips of your toes. Just tighten every muscle. Tense, tense, tense. Very tight. And then release. Relax. And just feel how good that feels. Not to carry that tension. Let's do it again. Tighten every muscle in your body all the way from the top of your head down through the tips of your toes. Just make them tight, tight, tight, and release. Feel how good that feels. To let go. One more time. Tight, tight, tight, and release. Now close your eyes. Take a deep and comforting breath. Exhale and begin to let all the tension go. All the tension from the top of your head all the way down through the tips of your toes. Let any remaining tension begin to drain away. You work hard. You don't need to carry that tension any longer. There's no requirement to do it. So let it be okay to let it drain away. And as it begins to drain away in its own time and in its own way, you can let go of all the muscles in your scalp. Let them go deeper and deeper. Relax. And let that relaxation flow down through your forehead and feel so good as you release, relax, and let go. Down through your eyes. They work very hard, don't they? So let them rest. All of you works very hard. So let yourself rest. Let all the muscles in your jaw release, relax, and let go. This is a place where tension often resides. That's where we hold it. So let it go. No law that you have to hold all that tension. In fact, let all the muscles in your face release, relax, let go. Down through your throat and all the muscles in your neck. Let them release and relax and let go. Down through your shoulders. Oh, that's where a lot tension can be. Your neck, your shoulders. Let it go. Let your shoulders drop just a little bit. Let them drop. Let them release, relax, and let go. Down through your upper arms. Both of them release, relax, let go. Down through your elbows, your forearms, your wrists, your hands. All the muscles in your hands can release, relax, and let go. Down through your fingers and out your fingertips. Deeper and deeper. Relax. Let go. Because it feels so good. Feels good to be you without being crusted over with tension. So let go the best you can. At least we're beginning the process now and you're doing such a good job. Relax down through your upper chest. Oh, let go. Good job. We've been carrying tension for so long. Down through your stomach, the middle of your body, your hips, your thighs. Deeper and deeper. Relaxed. Down through your knees and your calves. Deeper and deeper relaxed. Your ankles, your feet, your toes. Let them all relax. Deeper, deeper and deeper relaxed. Let go. And as you relax deeper and deeper, I'm going to count from 10 down to 1, just to give you time to enjoy relaxing. Enjoy letting go. Because you're not the tension, so you don't need to hold on to it. And when it's gone, you'll still be here and it will be gone. Any old troubling thoughts can also release, relax, and let go. Emotions are also invited to release, relax, and let go. At least some, whatever's comfortable. 10. Let go. Deeper and deeper relaxed. 9. So comfortable, so relaxed. 8. Let go. 7. Deeper and deeper relaxed. 6. Way down, relax. Feel how good it feels simply to let go. 5. Fully yourself, fully present. Simply letting go of your tension. 4. It can melt away. Relax. Awareness is curative and it can melt away everything simply by warming old tensions in the light of your awareness. They melt. Going from 4 down to 3. Deeper and deeper relaxed. 2. 1. 0. Deeper and deeper relaxed. And now, I'm going to invite you to go twice as deeply relaxed. Go twice as deeply relaxed as you are now. Right now, go twice as deeply relaxed. If you'd like, you can. Let go. And that's wonderful. That's wonderful. Good job. Feel how good it is to be yourself without as much tension. And as you relax, this is a wonderful time to heal more deeply. Perhaps there's somebody who has harmed you that you'd like to work with today with this guided forgiveness meditation. If so, picture that person in your mind's eye and remember what they have done to you. Perhaps they've bullied you. They've disrespected you, maybe. They've hurt you in some way. Maybe they've betrayed you. Maybe they've cheated you. Maybe they've done many things. Maybe they've lied to you. Maybe they haven't kept their agreements. Maybe they've abused you. Remember whatever they've done. See it. Know it. And perhaps you've been feeling it underneath the surface all this time. And if so, and if it's okay, and only if it's okay, allow yourself to feel what you've been feeling anyway. No more. No less. Just what you've been feeling. And if it's too much, don't do that. But if it's okay, feel what you feel and let it be felt by you. Let it be experienced by you. Because as you experience it, it begins to unravel, untwist. It begins to release its harmful energy because it might feel very painful. All the stored energy often feels very painful. Maybe there's a lot of hurt or shame or guilt or anger or fear or anxiety or blame or frustration, something, whatever it is, let it come to the surface. If it's okay, if it's safe for you to do that, let it come to the surface and just watch it, feel it. Don't get involved with it, but let it emote. Let it just quietly exude its energy because it only contains so much energy. And after it expends that energy, like a rubber band that's been twisted tight and you let it go and it just spins, it exhausts its energy and then it's loose and limp and relaxed, peaceful. So let whatever's stored up, just let it begin to release and relax and let go. And I'll give you a few moments, deeper and deeper, relax. Just let it release as you relax. And what are you relaxing into? You're relaxing into your deep being, oneness. And there's so much healing in that oneness. It merges with the divine because it is the divine. It's your higher self. You're letting go into your higher self, into the divine, into oneness. Let go into healing, into love, into peace and let that love and peace and healing flow into all your wounds, into any anger or hurt or frustration or blame or shame. Let it soak up this love and peace. Just let go into your being as you relax deeper and deeper into the infinite, deeper and deeper you go and let the infinite flow into every place that hurts. And every place that hurts, let it soak up like a dry sponge. Just soak up the healing power of the infinite, the quiet yet infinite power of your being. So deep, so relaxed, as whatever is emoting in you, your pain, your hurt, your fear, your anger, shame or guilt, blame. As it emotes, it's offloading all that it's carrying. And that's the out-breath. And then there's an in-breath. And it takes in the healing. It's like a balm or a salve that heals, heals you. So soak up that healing wherever it feels good, wherever you need it, like a dry sponge. Soak it up and enjoy it. Every drop you take in, enjoy, because when you enjoy, healing happens. That's the connection. That's when you know you've taken it in because it feels good. Something's receiving it. That's why there's a good feeling. It feels good. That means healing is happening. When you're feeling good, that means a part of you, to some extent, has let go of some pain to give way to that good feeling. When you soak it up like a dry sponge, that sponge is no longer dry. So soak it up like a dry sponge. Healing. Soak it up. And you can continue with this process for as long as you like, as many days, as many times, until you're completely healed. And at the end of this process, I'd like you to picture that person who has harmed you. And let them go back in time. Picture them shrinking back down to a child. If they're a big bully right now, see them shrinking, going back in time, turning into a child. And what do you see? Are they really confident? Or are they hurting? Maybe somebody's bullied them. Maybe they feel very weak. Or somebody who disrespects you. As a child, what are they like? Are they respected? Are they loved? Maybe that's simply an unloved child that's been disrespecting you. Or if somebody's stolen from you, see them as a child. Do they have everything they need? Or do they feel a vast sense of lack and insecurity? Somebody who lies, see them as a child. What do you suppose their environment was like, where they felt that they had to lie? Are they hurting? Are they afraid, do you think? See them shaking and being afraid. They don't know what to do. Somebody who's angry. Maybe they're hurting. So they're lashing out. They're trying to protect themselves. Or maybe they're afraid. So they want to be strong. Or they want to protect themselves. See these little babies? That's really who's been hurting you, isn't it? Take your time with that, and I'll give you some time. For your particular circumstance with the particular person that you're working with today, picture them as a child with their hurts and fears. Were their parents there for them, treating them nicely, giving them all the love they needed? Take a few moments and just wonder about that. Wonder about all of it, as you're held in the divine, as you melt into your infinite being of healing. At some point, can you imagine that maybe you have an overflow of love and peace, more than enough to fill up your dry sponge? And as you overflow, I wonder if you could look into the eyes of this person who's hurt you and say, I forgive you. I wonder if your heart can overflow, maybe not today, but maybe one day, to flow from your heart to their heart, and regardless of their response, because they've got problems. Maybe they can't respond back, but you can love just because they're hurting and they don't have good actions. Maybe they can't be kind, but you are kind. You are loving. You are healed, so you love. You love them in the safety of now. Send them love from your heart to their heart, and you look them in the eye. I forgive you. I forgive you. You don't even know what you're doing. You're in so much pain. I forgive you, and I hope and wish healing for you. I send you healing. Bless you, and you send them blessings. Until they heal, maybe they're a dangerous person for you, so you steer clear. Set your boundaries. We're not condoning what they've done. We're simply noticing you're healed, and you can love again. You can love even people who have betrayed you, and at the same time, you can protect yourself and be fine, and if this is a person that you'd like to continue interactions with, and you'd like to work with, you can do that, and you do it from a healed place. You love them, so you can do this meditation on your own for as long as you'd like, for as many days as you'd like, and now for transition, I'm going to count from zero on up to five. At five, you'll feel rested, refreshed, very alert, and awake, and you'll take all this good healing with you because it is you. So, beginning to count zero, one, two, three, four, five, rested, refreshed, relaxed, awake, and feeling good. You can do this meditation anytime that you'd like, with or without me. You know what to do, and you know how to do it now, so do it as often as you'd like until you feel complete. I've enjoyed our time together, and I look forward to the next time we meet. Take care. Bye.