Embrace Forgiveness Through Meditation with Athena Desai

Transcript

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Welcome to the Morning Formation that I had, athena Desai, if you got an opportunity to listen to her episode.

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She is a trauma specialist and a very holistic spiritual professional and, just out of the graciousness of her heart, she has provided two 20-minute recording sessions for our audience out there.

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If you would like to meditate utilizing these two recordings, all you got to do is download this and then, from there, find yourself a safe place and close your eyes and listen to the words.

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Again, I have two of these, so I'll upload each one separately.

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Please give me some feedback on this.

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I know she would like to hear it as well, but I hope you can enjoy.

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Hello everybody but I hope you can enjoy.

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Hello everybody, today's meditation is about letting go of the past.

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We'll mark the beginning, the middle and the end of the 10 minutes.

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There will be long pauses on purpose.

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Try to let go of what you think you should be doing in those times.

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It's really time to practice allowing thoughts to arise and allowing them to move.

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You can always return to the sensation of your breath, but I would choose one place to focus on either the feeling of air coming in and out of your nostrils or the rise and fall of your belly your nostrils or the rise and fall of your belly.

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I would also make sure that your spine is straight, whether you're sitting or lying down, and that you can breathe freely.

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And that you can breathe freely.

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Let's begin, we'll start, by taking three deep breaths.

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Try to breathe all the way into your belly, into your pelvic bowl, and have the air come all the way up into your collarbones.

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And then reverse that process and let's do a little scan of the body, starting from the crown of your head, starting from the crown of your head, as if you had a light that was shining down through each layer, each level, all the way down to the soles of your feet and just see if there are any places where you're holding tension that you might be open to incorporating some breath in that space, allowing it to release a little.

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Before we return to focusing on the breath, I invite you to set an intention for this practice and return to focusing your mind either on your nose or your belly the sensation of air coming in and out.

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Just observing it gives you a sense of being alive.

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It can be challenging to observe something that we feel like we should have some control over.

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Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't.

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The active observing helps give us more choice about how we use our energy and our attention.

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So the first invitation of this meditation is to see if you can be gentle with yourself.

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As you pay attention to your breath.

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Your mind will wander.

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That is natural.

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Natural.

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See if, as you refocus on the sensation, you can do so with A smooth, light energy.

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Thank you.

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If you notice yourself trying to control your breath, that's okay.

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See if you can let that go, without story, without judgment, and try imagining that you can drop your mind into the space that you're focusing on, just observing, without eating it to be any different, any different as if you're sitting on the bank of a river just watching it go by.

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When we want to let go of the past, sometimes we want to do so with great force.

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In this moment we're going to try doing it with gentleness and just giving ourselves some grace that there were reasons that we held on so tightly to a memory, to a memory, to a hurt.

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It's okay.

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Just breathe In and out is to breathe into a feeling of forgiveness, and this is going to be for yourself.

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You don't have to know what it's for.

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That forgiveness is another way of bringing love to yourself to what happened, what happened.

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If it's a hard feeling to step into, think of something that you love fully, with some neutrality Maybe that's an animal or a place and just notice how your body feels when you think about that thing.

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Find something to forgive yourself for from any time in the past.

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I forgive myself for not doing better.

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It can be as simple as that.

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You can use that as a mantra.

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You can say it once and then return to the breathing.

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Just see what arises from that.

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You, if you're feeling tension in your body, try breathing into that space.

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The more challenging it is, the more helpful it is to do your exhale from your mouth.

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Let's see if you can return to just noticing the sensation.

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Return to just noticing the sensation, air coming in and out of your nose, belly moving up and down.

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The third invitation is to find something that you're grateful for From the past.

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This might be challenging.

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You could also choose something that you're grateful for from the present.

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Gratitude is one of the biggest game changers in terms of healing what's been and transforming what was into wisdom and medicine that we can use for ourselves and for others.

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Finding that gratitude I am grateful that I've learned so much.

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It can be as simple as that.

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You can use it once and return to your breathing.

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But this is how we'll end this particular meditation Taking three deep breaths to close, as deep and as long as they can be, and if it feels good to you, I like to end with my hands in prayer position and a slight bow Towards you, your past, your intentions, your forgiveness, your gratitude.

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The light in me bows to the light in you, namaste.

Embrace Forgiveness Through Meditation with Athena Desai

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