Book Excerpt Chapter Seven:

Freedom Through Forgiveness

Invitation #6 - Exchanging Pain for Peace

p. 178 - You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy by James Blanchard Cisneros.

	See a short flash presentation on Forgiveness.

Read completely through the following invitation a couple of times to get a feel for it. Then, put the book down, find a quiet place, sit down, close your eyes, relax and give it a try.

This, as with other invitations, asks that your complete heart be engaged during the process. (The invitations are heart-centered, meaning you must use your heart and soul to guide you through the process.)

If you are currently emotionally, physically, or spiritually tired, you may want to wait for another day. Yet if you feel tired and still want to try it, please do as your instinct tells you. Finally, do not judge yourself if you feel "nothing happened." Many times, progress does not come in the form that the ego expects. But I promise you that progress will be made, for I have witnessed how one moment spent with God completely raises the vibration of not only this planet but also of all its inhabitants.

 Get into a meditative state.

• Speak, pray from your heart. When you're done speaking, just breathe and allow for quiet time.

• Listen.

• Give thanks. End meditation.

Before going to bed one night, go to your room. Sit on a chair and take about a minute to breathe. Breathe deeply; close your eyes. With every breath you take, feel God getting closer.

Visualize yourself on a chair, sitting in darkness. Then visualize a fog coming toward you; the fog is full of white light. This white light represents God's love. Feel His light and love slowly surround and envelop you. Give Him permission to enter and ask your guardian angels and guides to also come in. Surround yourself with the white light of protection and feel the light surrounding you, protecting you. Tell God, Jesus, and your guardian angels and guides that you are now ready to exchange pain for peace. This pain can be anything from an emotionally trying time to an individual you have yet to forgive. Go back to a time when you once experienced pain. Understand that you are now completely protected. Understand that nothing can hurt you any longer, because you are now completely surrounded by your spiritual family. They are here to assist you, to protect you from your own thoughts. Bring that pain into your thoughts and offer it to God. See yourself handing all the pain you experienced over to God. A little willingness is all it takes. Visualize yourself slowly and deliberately grabbing all of the dark pain out of your body and mind, and putting it into a bag. Feel the weight of the pain that you are extracting from your body. Feel the bag getting heavier and your body getting lighter. Hold this bag in front of you and offer it to God. Feel the weight of the pain that you are extracting from your body. See the bag turn black as you continue to release your pain into it. Feel the bag getting heavier and your body getting lighter. See God gladly take this bag from you, and as He does, see it being slowly dissolved into His light. As the bag begins to dissolve, feel yourself becoming lighter, for you have finally chosen to let it go. The weight has been lifted. As you begin to feel lighter and free, feel God filling those now open spaces with His light. Feel His light expanding throughout your body, filling up all the crevices that were once dug up by the ego. By your choice, His truth now replaces your illusions.

God will gladly take all memories of pain from you because He loves you. See your pain being dissolved in His light, and feel His peace enter you. Let His love enter you; feel the waves of love entering your spirit. You and God are one. He has absolute love for you. Let Him forever take the pain away and replace it with His love. Feel His love filling that place in you where pain once lived.

He is so grateful for the exchange because He knows that one of His children has just taken another step toward Him. He is so grateful for the exchange because He knows that one of His children has just exchanged the illusion of pain for the truth of peace. He is very grateful to you and I know you'll be grateful to Him. Thank Him with all your heart and feel Him receiving your love and thanks. Send waves of love and light into His light that you now are. Thank Him for being there for you. Thank all of your spiritual family for their protection and support. Spend some time in the light and in quiet gratitude. Say goodbye and let God, your guardian angels and your guides go with the understanding that they are always with you and that any moment you ask them to be with you, they will be there. For today, you have rediscovered a moment in time that had been hidden from you but you now acknowledge is always available. All you need to do now is ask, and Heaven will gladly come to you. All you need to do is ask for peace, and as you ask for it, you will remember its ever present availability.

For a moment, choose to put aside all of your complex and heavy questions and learn to be silent. Replace all of your questions with two simple words: Thank you. Be silent for a moment, my friend, and you just might hear "You're welcome!" You might ask: How far am I away from God? And you just might hear:

"How far do you believe your brother to be from Me?
How far do you believe your neighbor to be from Me?
How far do you believe your enemy to be from Me?
For that is how far you are from Me!"

The following quote comes from Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl." I use it to end this chapter on forgiveness simply to show the power of the Godself. This young child, living in the most difficult of circumstances, held onto her belief that people are really good at heart. There is also a place within your heart that, when asked, acknowledges this. It is this place that is your foundation. It is this place that whispers throughout eternity that all will be all right. It is this place where you'll rediscover the freedom forgiveness has to offer.

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness; I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out." ²⁰
 

Read more Spiritual / Self Development Activities which cultivate the concepts in the book 'You Have Chosen to Remember' - including Forgiveness, Embodying Your Godself, Developing Peace of Mind, and more.

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