A guided forgiveness meditation led by Emily Fletcher that walks listeners through relaxation breathing, visualizing a person to forgive at three life stages (childhood, old age, present), speaking forgiveness statements, cutting an energetic cord, reclaiming personal energy, and closing with uplifting quotes. The exercise is intended to be repeatable, usable toward forgiving others, oneself, or even public figures, and emphasizes that forgiveness benefits the forgiver ("not for you, but for me").
Chapters
Hi, friends. I'm Emily Fletcher, and I want to welcome you to the Power of Forgiveness. This is an audio you can use for our entire forgiveness series and hopefully beyond. I invite you to really use this as it feels charming for you. You can use it with someone who has hurt you in some way. You can even use it to forgive yourself or a public figure. And the reality is that you might have to use this multiple times with one person. And that's okay. We'll start with a quote. It's one of my favorite quotes on forgiveness. It's by Bernard Meltzer, and he says, when you forgive, you in no way change the past, but you sure do change the future. So I'm going to say that again. When you forgive, you in no way change the past, but you sure do change the future. So let's dive in. So you can begin by having a seat anywhere that feels comfortable. Ideally with your back supported but your head free. You can go ahead and close your eyes and take a big, delicious inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Really good. Just giving yourself permission to be exactly where you are. Inhaling through the nose. And as you exhale, softening your brow, softening your eyes, softening your jaw, your shoulders, your. Your belly. And again taking an inhale right into your belly. And as you exhale, softening your chest, your hands, your hips, your legs and your feet, trusting that you're exactly where you're meant to be. So, to begin, I invite you to think of someone who could use some forgiveness. And you can use this audio multiple times. You could do it on someone who's hurt you in some way. You can forgive yourself or even a public figure. Taking a moment to decide who you'd like to focus on for today. And don't worry too much about picking the perfect thing or the perfect person. Probably the first instinct that you had is a good person to use for today. And when you feel clear on that, I invite you to imagine this person is sitting about three feet in front of you, facing you and looking right into your eyes and take a moment to really see them. What does their face look like? What does their hair look like? What are they wearing? And as you look into their eyes and they look into yours, taking note of how that feels for you. Is it scary to make eye contact? Do you feel angry? Do you feel hurt? There's no right or wrong way to do this, but just taking note of what's coming up for you and giving yourself full permission to be exactly where you are and Please be gentle with yourself. If emotions start to come up, just let them. Our theme song will be better out than in. Better to release these emotions than to harbor them inside. So as you make eye contact with this person, I invite you to think about the transgression. Taking a moment to play the movie in your mind of everything that went down that you feel the need to forgive them for. And I don't want you to do it yet, but just imagine what it would feel like if you had to tell this person that you forgive them. Would it feel hard? Would it be easy? Would it feel impossible? But taking note of your starting place as we move through this visualization. And now I invite you to imagine this person, but at three years old. So seeing them as an adorable, tiny toddler just figuring life out. Perhaps you're watching them as they're playing at a playground, or as they're eating dinner or even falling asleep at night. And they're so full of optimism and innocence and naivete. And as you imagine them running around a playground, if they slip and fall, notice how easy it is for you to forgive them for falling down. Notice how much easier it is to give someone the benefit of the doubt when we see them at three years old, when we see how much they have to learn and how far they have to go. And if you imagine them as a messy three year old having dinner, not quite making their mouth and making a mess on the kitchen table, notice how lovable and adorable the mistakes are and how you feel inspired to teach them or to help them. So now imagining this three year old version of this person seated right across from you and look right into their eyes, See their hair, their skin, what are they wearing, their tiny hands and taking a deep inhale. And as you exhale, simply saying, I forgive you. I'm choosing to forgive you. I forgive you. Not because I agree with what you did, but because I'm choosing to trust that you were doing the best that you could with the tools that you had at the time. I forgive you. Not even for you, but for me. I forgive you. And as you say those words, just noticing how that changes their face, their eyes, and checking in with yourself, is anything changing inside of you? Do you feel a bit more space in your heart? How do you feel in your gut? And now I invite you to imagine this person. But now they're 93 years old and really take them in. See the lifetime of experience and stories and regret that's etched across their face. Perhaps their eyes are a bit clouded over. Maybe their Hair is thinning and their skin is paper like. And as you sit across from this 93 year old version of this person, you know that they're approaching their final days or weeks of their life. And ask yourself the question, do I want this person to take this transgression to their grave? Do I want to take this opportunity to resolve this animosity now while they're still in their body? So now imagining looking right into their eyes and they're looking right into yours. And taking an inhale and as you exhale, saying, I forgive you. And you can do this out loud or in your mind, whatever feels more comfortable. But again, I forgive you. I'm choosing to forgive you. I'm choosing to forgive you. Not even because I want you in my life ever again, but because I'm ready to release you. I'm ready to take my energy back from this situation. I forgive you. And as you say those words, checking in with their eyes and noticing if anything changes on their face, do their eyes soften? Does their face soften? And checking in with yourself, how does that feel to choose forgiveness? How does it feel to say those words either in your mind or out loud? Really good. Now, I invite you to imagine this person, but they're at their current age, it's the present moment and they're seated right across from you, about three feet away and you're looking right into each other's eyes. And as you look into their eyes in the right now, see if you can hold the 3 year old version of them and the 93 year old version of them in your awareness at the same time, with all of that innocence, with all of that naivete and with all of that experience and vulnerability all happening simultaneously. And as you see them at the beginning and the end of their life and the present moment, holding this transgression in your mind, playing that story in your mind again, and trusting the work that you've already done, and choosing to say, I forgive you. Really truly, I forgive you. I'm choosing to forgive you. Not for you, but for me. I'm trusting that this pain has carved out space for more joy. So not only do I forgive you, but I thank you for helping me to become the person I am today. I forgive you. And I release you. Really good. So taking a big delicious inhale, exhaling, letting go of any thing that you're ready to surrender, any emotions that you want to let go of. Again, taking a big inhale and as you exhale, really letting go of any hurt, any pain, any anger and now we're going to take a moment to cut the energetic cord between the two of you. And you can do this in whatever way feels comfortable for you. Some people like to imagine it as they're dropping an anchor of dead weight. Some people imagine it like they're releasing a helium balloon into the sky. Or even taking an ax and cutting the cord quite violently. There's no right or wrong way to do this. I just want you to take a moment to cut the cord so that you can take your energy back. So taking a big, delicious inhale through your nose, and as you exhale, cutting the cord between the two of you. Perhaps it's a very clean cut with an X acto knife. Perhaps it's scissors. Or releasing that balloon, dropping that anchor, but really letting them go and taking a big, delicious inhale. And as you exhale, imagine them getting further and further away. And now taking a moment to let all this energy, all the energy that you've given to this person, to this event over the days, weeks, or even years that has passed since this event went down, and allowing all that energy to come back to you, taking all your energy back from this event so that it can supercharge your cells and so that you can use this energy to step into your full potential. Really good. So I want you to take a moment and give yourself a big internal high five. This is brave work and it can be uncomfortable. So I'm really proud of you for stepping up, and I hope that you're proud of yourself. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther King, and he shared, darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. And by you taking time to move through this forgiveness exercise, you've moved one step closer towards love. One step closer towards acceptance. Bravo. So taking a big, delicious inhale, and as you exhale, you can ever so slowly, ever so gently open the eyes.
