Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today I'm going to explore the

meaning of forgiveness and what

it can offer us in our lives.

So I think we've all had times

where somebody has said or done

something that we felt really hurt by.

Maybe a friend criticizes our

life choices, maybe a partner

betrays our confidence in some

way, or maybe a thoughtless or

rude remark by someone at work.

And whether or not that person meant to

hurt us, the painful feelings that result

from their actions or words are very real.

You know, so very often in life when

this happens, when somebody says or

does something that hurts us or angers

us, what we tend to do is we tend to

continue just carrying around this

hurt inside of us by replaying the

event over and over again in the mind.

You can probably relate, right?

As we do this, our resentment

and hostility towards the

person tends to build.

And when we're filled with all that

bitterness, all that resentment

and anger there's not much space

left within us for understanding,

healing and for our own inner peace.

So the thing is if we don't practice

forgiveness, we're the ones left carrying

the burden of anger and bitterness.

The other person actually might've moved

on already, or they might actually be

completely unaware of our feelings.

Now, forgiveness is not meant at all to

negate, deny or minimize what happened.

Instead, it's simply a choice

to let go of carrying that

hostility we're hanging on to.

It allows us to open the tight

fist of anger, create a little

bit of inner space and help us see

through the eyes of understanding.

When we look at the situation with

understanding, we might be able to

have some insight into why that person

might've done the things that they did.

And we might also reflect on our own

lives and see that we too make mistakes.

We too have done things that have hurt

others, you know, even though we may

not have intended to hurt anybody.

We all get caught up sometimes, we all

have flaws and we all have bad days.

In seeing this clearly we at least open

up a little bit of inner space in which

we might be able to understand the other

person better, make the choice to forgive

and then reclaim some inner peace.

So that's the invitation for today and

for the rest of this week, if you find

yourself feeling hurt or angered from

the actions of another person, just

making forgiveness your intention.

And it's not always easy, but see

if you can just a little bit soften

and let go of any animosity, just

bit by bit, for as you forgive the

other, you find peace in yourself.

So in today's meditation, we're

going to focus on generating

feelings of loving kindness towards

others who may have hurt us.

So I invite you to settle in for that

now and as always thank you for your

practice and your presence here with us.