The Gift of Forgiveness

The Gift of Forgiveness for Father’s Day

As Father’s Day arrives our thoughts turn to what gifts we can give. I suggest forgiveness.

Many of you may have had wonderful Fathers, who you love deeply, and who have loved you deeply. But no matter how wonderful they are, or were if they are no longer with you, odds are that there is in the life experiences you shared some slight, real or imagined, event, accidental or careless act that will benefit from being forgiven.

Such is the nature of life. We miscommunicate, misunderstand, and fall short of meeting one another needs. It is usually not intentional. It may stem from busyness or a clash of needs at a particular moment of time. It may be forgotten or harbored with justification and resentments.

Without forgiveness life is governed by…
an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.
– Roberto Assagioli

Whatever the situation or circumstance, I suggest Father’s Day as an opportunity to forgive it. Forgiveness is a gift you can give that requires no money. It is a gift that by giving to another, you also give to yourself.

You might upon reading these words say there is nothing to forgive. Or if as you read this you may begin to make justifications or excuses like “he did the best that he could” or “he didn’t mean to hurt me.” Or when remembering and realizing the hurt you still think that is too small or too petty to forgive.

All of that may be true, but the power of forgiveness is so broad and vast that I would recommend strongly to just forgive the hurt anyway. Forgiveness is a tool you can wield to bring you into the present moment, into the NOW. Forgiveness frees you from the past, and especially in relationships, opens you up to both give and receive love at a whole new level.

Forgiveness heals relationships of pain and hurt of which you may only be vaguely aware. The wonderful thing is it isn’t really hard to forgive once you have chosen to do so. Choosing to forgive can be the hard step and resisting forgiving harder still. Yet there is nothing I could suggest to you as families gather together and celebrate Father’s Day that could empower you more, bless you more or transform your life more than to use this opportunity to forgive.

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.
– Robert Muller

Forgiveness ends all the illusions of any conflict you may have had with your Father throughout your life. It does not matter if the slights are real or imagined. It does not matter if he even knows you were hurt or injured. He need never know you harbor anger or resentment. Forgiveness wipes all slates clean, opening your relationship to a new depth and a new understanding.

To experience a transforming guided awareness meditation that unites families, download my 12-minute meditation: Heart of the Family.

One great advantage of taking this opportunity to forgive is that by forgiving you are bringing your relationship with your Father into present time which then enables you to relate to one another from the mutual understanding of two adults.

This will be incredibly freeing and empowering. This shift in perspective may well enable the two of you to express things that have never been said before. After choosing to forgive their Father, I have had clients frequently report that the entire relationship with their Father changed, although they may have never said a single word to their Father about forgiving them or even feeling that they had a need to forgive them.

The task of forgiveness can be spiritual work. It is so very powerful and expresses in so many deep and subtle levels that it provides a fast track to transformation. As it transports you from the past into the present it also corrects errors of perception bringing you from the unreal to the real.

Ultimately an act of forgiveness is an act of love. By giving forth the love that created you to the one who sparked your formation with an act and expression of their love you are activating deep magic in your life.

Forgiveness is also an act that can release profound healing. It is a way of demonstrating love and by so doing it automatically triggers grace and compassion. It can be one of the most powerful things you can do to transform your life and enhance your success and ultimately your happiness and joy.

Forgiving one’s Father can also be interwoven with issues of success because archetypically a Father’s love is less unconditional. Most children grow up feeling that they must earn a Father’s love and most feel the best way to do that is to be successful.

Likewise, for many the primary issues for which they need to forgive their Fathers are tied into a perception of unavailability or lack of attention because of the Father’s involvement with work and career. Therefore, the act of forgiving your Father can have far-reaching implications in your life.

One very effective forgiveness technique is Hoʻoponopono [ho-o-pono-pono] (an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness.)

The Key Phrases That You Can Repeat Are:

Please forgive me
Thank you
I love you
I forgive you
I forgive myself

I wrote in more detail about this in my Holiday Forgiveness and Gratitude post.

Ultimately, forgiveness is the foundation to bring greater peace and serenity into your life. It is a cornerstone of all of the great spiritual teachings for thousands of years. But the most amazing part of forgiveness is the way that forgiving improves your life. What you intend as a gift and a blessing for the person you are forgiving ends up being a blessing and a gift in your life that impacts your life in ways that can be unimagined and empowering as you are freed and unburdened from wounds you may have forgotten and not even have realized you were still carrying.

The link between Love and Forgiveness is woven into the fabric of your life and whatever effort thought or energy it takes is returned to you with more benefits than you can measure as it ripples through your life releasing and freeing you from often unseen or unrecognized disruptions on your path as you journey through life.

So this Father’s Day just say I Forgive You and enjoy the gift of forgiveness in your life.

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All that you Do!

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Last updated 6-21-2020

About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”

The Art of Blessing

Genevieve Gerard

The Art of Blessing

As I was looking at the sales numbers for a variety of affirmations and meditations that I have put out in the world to help people I was astonished by an observation that started me thinking about both the art and the science of blessing.

When I saw that one of the most popular individual downloads from my two affirmation collections was the track labeled “thank you blessing” I was amazed.

What amazed me the most is how hungry people are to have the energy of the Divine affirmed and expressed in their life.

In the past hundred years or so, as the world has become more and more secular, the concept of blessing has fallen by the wayside. Little traditions and rituals of incorporating God into our lives are no longer woven into the daily fabric of life. Subtle conventions of speech and thoughts have changed. This may seem insignificant unless we consider this from the perspective of the principle that “energy follows thought.” The change in popular thought about the subject and meaning of blessing has had an unintended consequence on our society and our world of disconnecting us from our experience of the Divine.

By changing our thinking and simple changes in our patterns of speech we can begin to restore the peace and serenity that blessing extends because the principle that energy follows thought is a real and underlying truth in the world. We can individually return to the concept of blessing one another and invite blessing back into our human experience by extending blessings to one another.

Let us consider some of the ways that humankind has engaged in blessing throughout time. In much of the world, particularly India and Asia, blessing was extended as people greeted one another with “Namaste”. The meaning of this Sanskrit word used to greet and acknowledge another is “The Divine spark in me recognizes and honors the Divine spark in you.”

I honor the place in you where Spirit lives
I honor the place in you which is
of Love, of Truth, of Light, of Peace,
when you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me,
then we are One.
– Namaste Greeting

The powerful and wonderful part of this blessing, when used as a greeting from the perspective of the principle of energy following thought, is that in using this blessing you must first make a connection with your own Divine spark, your Higher Self or Soul. By affirming the truth that you are first affirming your alignment with the Divine, then recognizing and honoring or supporting that consciousness in the other. It is interesting to observe that the tradition extends to bringing your hands together and executing a slight bow as a physical expression of the blessing. The small bow remains in the interactions of most of the Asian cultures still today.

It is also interesting to note that in the cultures who have maintained these rituals the society is, in general, a little more respectful and mutually supportive than western societies where the thoughts and art of blessing have been left behind as archaic. As honoring and acknowledging God as a source and strength in our world, the benefits of blessing have waned and left us with a world where values such as truth and honor have become old-fashioned and are no longer pursued.

These subtle shifts in the consciousness of individuals and the consciousness of society has created an atmosphere of selfishness and self-involvement that are having a profound effect on the world. It is certainly easier to be greedy, depriving others of dignity if you do not consciously value them. It is certainly harder when, even on a very subtle level even with a habitual speech pattern, you honor them and acknowledge them as a part of the Divine, and identify yourself as such.

Consider that by not blessing and honoring another you may be in some way impacted. These subtle shifts we have seen in our society away from charity to greed, from honor to corruption may take root in our failure to honor and bless one another.

If we look at the residuals of traditional speech patterns we will see that blessing was once built in. From the simple tradition of saying “Bless you” when someone sneezes to the once very prevalent phrase of the American South “Bless his or her heart”, it is clear to see that the concept of blessing one another was woven into the fabric of right speech and right human relations, both values that have diminished as the traditions of blessing have been diminished in our society.

On a very subtle level, just the simple act of saying “God Bless You” when someone sneezes is an affirmation and statement of faith that God has power over evil. This is because this tradition emerged from the old belief that when someone sneezes they lose consciousness for a brief span of time and it was believed that in that loss of conscious thought evil could enter them while they were unconscious or unaware. Therefore invoking the blessing of God was a way to dispel evil to return the individual to control.

Likewise the traditional phrase of the American South of “Bless his heart” activated compassion for the individual and again very subtly acknowledged the power of God in right human relations. As the words are said, thoughts are engendered, again because of the principle that “energy follows thought.”

In most of Asia, the residual tradition of the slight bow, left over from the Namaste Blessing, shows respect and honor. It is certainly much harder to cheat, demean or ignore the principles of right human relationships when you are even on a ritualized basis acknowledging their humanity and equality with you, and you are affirming their unity with the Divine.

The greed and the selfishness that have become such a profound problem in the global society in which we live, feed upon this illusion of separation that the loss of blessing has engendered in the world. Certainly, it is much easier to cheat someone, take advantage of someone or in some way misuse someone if you see them as separate from you.

It is harder to treat someone abusively if you
acknowledge their unity with the Divine.
– Genevieve Gerard

I am sure Jesus was aware of this when he issued the guidance for right action with the phrase “yeah though you have done it unto the least of my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

As I write these words and consider more and more the importance and value of our blessing one another I am grateful that my exercise of accessing the popularity of my closing blessing has clarified for me the importance of building back into our life the art of blessing. Therefore, I would like to recommend that each and every one of us consider a way we could create the power of blessing into our lives.

As William Shakespeare wrote in The Merchant of Venice, “it blesses him that gives and him that takes”, it is impossible to bless someone without also receiving a blessing yourself. As I wrote in one of my most popular affirmations in my affirmation CD ‘Soaring to Success’ “As I help others I help myself.” This is especially true when giving a blessing.

For me, I will practice what I am preaching (so to speak) or walk my talk as the expression goes, by continuing to add to the conclusion of each offering I put out in the world my blessing, which comes sincerely from my heart as I conclude with Namaste, The Blessing of Love on all that you do.

Perhaps the simple act of adding Namaste to your greetings to others, friends, family or associates will help to return the art of blessing to the world. That energy follows thought is a firm and irrevocable principle of universal laws so even if you do not say anything, but think when you greet someone “the Divinity in me recognizes and honors the Divinity in you”, you are affirming your own role of co-creator in your life and also affirming their alignment and empowerment with the Divine.

In doing this, in your thoughts and in your heart, you are strengthening your own connection with the Divine, and the connection with your Soul or Higher Self. Blessing is a powerful act that needs to be returned to our traditions and our interactions with one another. By adding the art of blessing to your relationships you are making a decision to consciously enter into right speech and right human relations.

This is a powerful choice that can have far-reaching benefits, both to you and to the world around you. Therefore I enjoin you to bless one another as an act of love, honor, and respect, full knowing that the energy that goes out into the world with each and every blessing you give helps to make the world a better place.

I invite you and encourage you to be a source of blessing in the world by extending thoughts of blessing to others as you move through your life. When you see someone in need, bless them. When you observe someone who is upset or sorrowful, bless them. Practice blessing others in little ways throughout the day. By doing this you will invite blessing into your own life and become a subtle force for good in the word.

Thank you.

Namaste,

Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!

Last updated 2-4-2018

The Art of Blessing Read More »

A Perfect Moment In Time

Genevieve Gerard

A Perfect Moment

This post is part of my on-going series on Awareness & Being In The Now.

Have you ever experienced a perfect moment in time?

In a perfect moment you are released from fear with the full faith and confidence that you are OK exactly as you are.

You are freed from worrying, striving and stress, relaxing into what is and not trying to control life but letting life just unfold before you.

In a perfect moment, time seems to stand still. It is a moment when your heart is filled with feelings of love and your consciousness seems to expand to include a sense of Oneness with all of creation, with all of life. It is a moment of utter peace and complete joy.

Within a perfect moment are so many life lessons we can embrace and use to empower us when perfection seems out of our reach. In our experience of a perfect moment is a mind that is calm, not trying to do anything, not trying to change anything, but accepting with gratitude and appreciation what is available right here and right now.

In a perfect moment you are just being, and being is just perfect. If we ponder what is special and unique about that perfect moment we realize that it is free from the recriminations and judgments with which we so often burden our life. The flow of judgments in the form of “I should have, I could have, I ought to” as a part of our self-talk and mind chatter are ways we can deprive ourselves of joy. They are habits of thought that are a toxic poison. These self-judging thoughts take us out of the present into a consciousness of what never has been and never will be and is NOT real.

This illusionary standard of “could have”, “should have”, “ought to” holds us up to an imaginary standard of life and by so doing deprives us of the spontaneous joy and appreciation that is available to us when we let ourselves receive it instead of “shoulding” on ourselves.

We can free ourselves from this habit of killing our joy by becoming conscious of our thoughts and by making a conscious decision to focus our thoughts on editing and eliminating the often negative habitual thoughts that start with those illusionary phrases.

This technique of thought monitoring and thought editing is very powerful and can be life changing and life empowering. It is a way of harnessing the amazing power of our mind to bring into manifestation what we desire and claiming our role as a co-creator in our life. It is a way to become the director of your life rather than only an actor.

Whereas, statements such as “I should have” or “I could have” are dis-empowering and illusionary, statements in our self-talk of “I can” or “I will” are very empowering and start an automatic chain reaction to bring the plan into being.

Training your mind to empower your life requires your conscious intention to use the power of your mind for good in your life instead of letting your thoughts harm you by self-defeating, judgmental self-talk. Just this simple shift in your thought patterns and thought habits will create a very profound difference in your life. A difference you can feel and see quickly.

Love the moment and the energy of that moment
will spread beyond all boundaries.
– Corita Kent

Observing your thought, just monitoring and accessing the content of your thoughts is a good place to begin. When you do this you might be surprised at how much of your “mind chatter” is filled with these toxic patterns. When you have observed the frequency of these damaging illusionary phrases, take a moment to consider how these thoughts make you feel. For most of us, it is tense, anxious and disheartened.

Then, as an experiment take just 1 minute and observe your thoughts and each time you catch yourself thinking the “coulda, shoulda” thoughts, consciously with intention, replace those thoughts with “I can and I will” thoughts.

Now how do you feel; excited, hopeful, powerful?

Thoughts have power. That truth can be used either for you or against you.

You can, by harnessing the power of your thoughts, unlock a powerful tool that both enhances your success and increases your joy. Since most of us do very little to consciously control our thoughts that power is left underutilized. By bringing your thoughts into consciousness and by choosing what you think, you are making a shift that will change your life in so many ways.

To take the reins of your mind and use its vast power in your life to create the life that you desire is the first step on a journey to success and joy. This you can realize, this you can do when you consider what you can learn when you have “a perfect moment in time”.

I invite you and encourage you to harness the amazing power of your mind and your thoughts to bring to you the life transformation that you desire.