Let's take a moment to appreciate

the things that have been

happening in your life recently.

Today's theme is appreciating forgiveness.

As always, if you would like

to journal along, you can pause

after each prompt to give yourself

more time to write and reflect.

First, let's take a deep breath in.

And out.

It's often assumed that forgiveness is

something we do for someone else, but

in reality, the quiet gift hidden in

forgiveness is actually our own freedom.

This doesn't mean of course, that

we ignore the grief or anger that we

might experience, or that we pretend

that what happened was no big deal.

Mindfulness is about

practicing radical honesty.

It just means that we don't continue

to nurse our anger or seek revenge.

And we are open to letting go of

the emotional hook that situation

might have had us in that

keeps us tied to our suffering.

The Dalai Lama says learning to

forgive is much more useful than

merely picking up a stone and throwing

it at the object of one's anger.

For it is under the greatest

adversity that there exists the

greatest potential for doing

good, both for oneself and others.

Think of a time when you forgave a

wrong that was done to you or when

you were forgiven by someone else.

What did it feel like?

What was challenging about it?

What made you decide to let go

of your anger or to accept the

forgiveness of someone else?

What happened in the days and weeks after?

Now with this in mind,

repeat the following phrases:

Thank you for the opportunity

to be free from resentment.

Thank you for the ways that forgiveness

allows me to see our common humanity.

Thank you for the strength to be truly

honest about everything I'm feeling.

Thank you for the growth

that forgiveness can bring.

To end this session, let's

take a deep breath in.

And out.

We'll see you back here tomorrow

for another gratitude practice.