Forgiveness Tree
A Release ritual for Healing
How to do it:
Preparing:
Find a calm space where you would meditate
Sit and bring in a series of slow, deep breaths to help you ground into the moment and connect to the emotion of your heart.
Part 1: Asking forgiveness
Below is a list of who will ask forgiveness from.
Imagine yourself in front of each person, or group, and try to visualize them and clearly as you can in front of you.
Begin to ask them for forgiveness, but it is important to feel yourself begging and pleading for their forgiveness, as if your entire life depended on them forgiving you.
You can kneel and bow "before them", with your head to the ground, hands folded and extended in front of you, as if at their feet. The key here is to really feel that you NEED their forgiveness.
You can speak it softly under your breath, or have the voice in your head asking.
As you go through asking for forgiveness, you can speak to specific reasons that come up for you and why you need their forgiveness. Or you can be more general. The more you connect with, the more it will feel important and real.
Repeat asking for forgiveness over and over until you really feel like you've fully connected the entirety of why you need it.
This can take 1-5 minutes per person / group, but go with what feels good. Don't rush it. Allow emotion and even tears to come forward.
Example reasons: judging them, hurting them, taking them for granted, diminishing them, rejecting them, lying to them, distancing yourself (even if you felt it was healthy boundaries for you), etc
Ask forgiveness to each of the below:
1) Yourself. Beg for forgiveness for all of the ways you have betrayed or hurt yourself.
2) Your parents.
3) Your closest relationship; a partner, an ex, best friend, or whoever you have the most feelings about.
4) Your friends. You can connect to specific friends, or to them as a group.
5) Your communities. This can include acquaintances, work groups, etc
6) The world. All of the ways in which people hurt themselves, each other, or the planet. Politicians, unconscious people, criminals, all of them.
Take 3 slow, deep breaths
Part 2: Giving forgiveness
1) Sit up straight, as you will picture each of these at your feet begging for forgiveness.
2) Begin to forgive each, and really feel the weight lift and fall off of you.
3) You can speak "I forgive you. I love you. You are perfect." You can speak to specific reasons that you forgive or love them, or keep it general. Really push to make it feel like the other person or group, wherever they are, can feel you in this moment.
Give forgiveness to each of the below:
1) Yourself.
2) Your parents.
3) Your closest relationship
4) Your friends
5) Your communities
6) The world
Take 3 slow, deep breaths
That’s one full cycle.
2-3 cycles is very powerful and continues to increase the amount of release and healing.
Best as a weekly practice, or even a daily practice.
The first couple times we do this is the most cathartic and emotional, really pulling uncovered layers up. Once we "catch up" and it's a lesser cycle we are having to explore, this ritual becomes quicker and lighter, just a quick cleansing.
Why do it:
Forgiveness is the ultimate medicine for freedom, releasing resentment, anger, to shame and judgment. This is the one power we have full control over.
Relationships are complicated, and much of how we show up in them, or react to them, is from how we feel justified or "right", or how we maintain our boundaries. Whether we are right or not, we all end up causing or receiving sticky bits of pain and resentment.
Often times, we might not even realize how we have affected others, especially if we feel our intentions are good.
The first layer to release and healing is connecting with all of these within ourselves.
The next evolution from this powerful release ritual, would be to reach out to those on our list and to ask or express forgiveness. But whether or not it is a successful connection, doing this exercise to ourselves, allows us to have full agency over our experience.
When to do it:
Weekly
Could also become a quicker daily practice
How long it takes:
10-30 mins
Materials needed:
N/A
Origin:
Unknown
Original Source:
Taught by Agus, a healer and medicine man from Bali, Indonesia