FORGIVENESS PRACTICE: Breathing-in & Breathing-out feelings and thoughts as a way to heal and live

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FORGIVING PRACTICE. Hallelujah for the practice of forgiveness for its healing powers and as a way of guiding one's words and deeds. (art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

Hallelujah for FORGIVENESS…hallelujah for finding out how fabulously vast this human act of “cancelling” what occurred IS!

Dear readers, I believe it is possible to change ourselves right down to our cellular level through repeated acts of FORGIVENESS.

As a novice at this practice of asking for FORGIVENESS and accepting apologies, I feel slightly presumptuous writing about it. However, I’m well into my second year of practicing FORGIVENESS every day.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS.

Each day, I breathe in and exhale four times to apologize to someone I feel or know that I have harmed:

Breathe-in-Breathe-out (BIBO): “___________, I’m sorry I made you suffer. 
BIBO: Please forgive me.
BIBO: I love you.
BIBO: I thank you.

Even though this FORGIVENESS practice is done in the privacy of my home or mind, I have discovered several things occurring as a result. 

First, the “energy” of a harmful act or hurt relationship is gently nudged and moves. Instead of staying static—immoveable—the negative energy of the thought "pulses," creating the possibility of change and possible release of that thought or feeling.

Second, through this daily FORGIVENESS practice, I am also now more likely to ask someone for forgiveness face-to-face, ready to acknowledge my wrong doing or being the catalyst of a negative reaction. I have cultivated a ready path to the act of apologizing and developed a “forgiveness” vocabulary. 

And, third, slowly, I have come to realize that I am learning to forgive myself for all that I fail to do, all that I don’t execute correctly, for all that I fall short of in my expectations.

DAILY PRACTICE OF FORGIVENESS

FORGIVENESS is a possible WAY of living my life more fully, richly, and deeply. 

I pause now reflecting more than ever before if my word or deed will hurt someone. "How can I phrase my thought or perform an action that causes the least harm?" is something I might remember to ask myself now. Living my life much more consciously is a result of this FORGIVENESS practice.

…STILL…I hunger for a deeper way of knowing about FORGIVENESS, how to forgive, and how to be forgiven. I suspect that this pathway of forgiveness will lead me to new behaviors—manifesting new ways of supporting and playing with myself and my friends. Perhaps, forgiveness will show me a sweeter way of being human and accepting my humanity.

FORGIVENESS BRINGS US INTO DEPTH OF OUR BEINGS

The other day (June 23, 2015), I was fortunate enough to meet with an elder in my community who has deep experience in leading FORGIVENESS workshops, and he introduced me to a five-step forgiveness practice. He skillfully guided me through the steps that were profound for me in their simplicity. I hope to learn this five-step process and to have the opportunity to implement it as a regular practice in my life.

That's Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and share what you know about FORGIVENESS.