Daily Gratitude - Forgiveness

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.