Love , peace and happiness

Love, Peace and Freedom: 5 Minutes to Forgiveness For when you need an alternative to The Four Steps to Forgiveness.

, it is mostly focussed on The Four Steps to Forgiveness. This has proved itself to be wonderfully effective in many people's lives. However, there are times when The Four Steps to Forgiveness is not applicable. We may want to work on Forgiveness while doing some kind of physical exercise (such as out walking or running), or we might not have the time or inclination to focus in-depth on a specific issue. We might want a forgiveness method we can use at the start of the day before we are really awake; or something we can use just before going to sleep and our mind has partly switched off. It can also be that we find ourselves in a bad mood and don't know why; or we may feel overwhelmed and confused, and don't know where to start with Forgiveness.

It is very useful to have a Forgiveness method that acts like a "general tonic" to our sense of wellbeing. Something we can use like a pick-me-up for any situation and at any time of the day, even if we are not quite awake yet, or we're too tired to do The Four Steps to Forgiveness; or we just feel like trying something new. This is where Love, Peace and Freedom: 5 Minutes to Forgiveness, comes in.

Use it for at least 5 minutes any time you want to boost how you feel. You can use it whether you notice that you are feeling unhappy about something (worry, frustration, anger, resentment, shame or guilt, etc), or you want to increase your current state of happiness to the next level.

Love, Peace and Freedom: 5 Minutes to Forgiveness

Love, Peace and Freedom: 5 Minutes to Forgiveness is done in cycles of four breaths. You do a forgiveness affirmation on each of the first three breaths, and you are silent (or even sigh if appropriate) on the fourth breath. Even if you are "saying" the affirmations in the silence of your mind, it is still good to follow the cycle of four breaths. If you use it while doing yoga, exercising,

walking, or running, you simply fit Love, Peace and Freedom: 5 Minutes to Forgiveness into whatever breathing rhythm is comfortable for you. Notice your feelings without making any particular effort to try and make them change. Breathe a little bit deeper and a little bit more slowly and say the phrases in the silence of your mind for 5

minutes:

First out-breath: "I choose the Love that Forgiveness brings."

Second out-breath: "I choose the Peace that Forgiveness brings." Third out-breath: "I choose the Freedom that Forgiveness brings." Fourth out-breath: Silent (possibly with a sigh).

Keep going round, nice and slowly, till the 5 minutes is up.

After 5 minutes, notice how you feel. If it felt good and you have the time, feel free to do it some more, but don't let it become a strain. If it starts to feel like a strain, see if you can be more relaxed about it. There is no need to push it, or put much effort into it.

It helps to gently get into the feelings of "love", "peace" and "freedom," as you speak the

relevant word.

Variations

After you have tried this a few times, and have got familiar with it, you may get the urge to use different words like "happiness," "joy," "contentment," and "lightness". By all means, follow this

urge so that you are varying the method to suit your needs in the moment. You might find yourself

using the same word, such as "happiness," for all of the first three out-breaths and that is fine too. If you lose your way, or become uncertain, just come back to the "standard version" above. You can also shorten the sentences. Instead of using a phrase like "I choose the Love that

forgiveness brings," you can use, "I choose Love." Or you can just say the actual quality for each

breath. For example: "Love" for the first out-breath, "Peace" for the second, and so on.

However, I recommend that you keep the fourth out-breath silent as before, as this allows space for you to let go anything which gets in the way of you experiencing the qualities that you are focussing on.