Today's exercise is a guided meditation and reflection process to revisit the last time you lost faith in either yourself or someone you know well and strengthen your objectivity and faith in them.
Feel free to pause this audio and grab your journaling materials if you intend to journal later on during the process and continue if and when you are ready to move on.
Please come into a comfortable seated position.
Exhale and allow yourself to settle into your body,
Into your seat,
Into this moment,
Here and now.
If it feels good for you,
Let your eyes half or fully close.
Guide your awareness inwards.
For the next three breaths,
Continue to exhale and allow your body to relax even more.
Guide your awareness inwards to the inner landscape of you,
To your mind's eye.
As you guide your awareness to your mind's eye,
Bring to mind your most recent memory of the last time you lost faith in yourself or in someone you know well.
This could have happened earlier today,
Yesterday,
Last week or even last month.
As you bring to mind this memory,
Watch it play out in your mind's eye like a movie playing out on the screen as if you are watching it in a cinema.
What happened?
What happened?
Who did you lose faith in?
Was it yourself or someone you know well?
And what rationalizations did you use to justify this loss of faith?
How did it manifest in your actions and responses in the moment?
If you wish to journal on this,
You may also wish to pause this audio and write or journal this.
Alright,
You may wish to pause this audio and write down whatever comes to mind,
Taking as long as it feels right for you.
If and when you feel ready to continue,
Let's take a deep breath in and a long breath out.
And in your mind's eye,
See the face of this person who you lost faith in.
This could be yourself or someone else you know well.
See clearly the face of this person and feel yourself in the presence of this person.
See clearly the person as they are,
Not through the lens of who you think this person should be and how you believe this person should act,
Or how you wish this person would act.
Acknowledge that this person is an individual,
A unique person with their own hopes,
Dreams,
And aspirations.
A unique person with their own hopes,
Dreams,
And vulnerabilities.
Most of all,
Consider the character of this person and this person's fundamental unchanging qualities.
Perhaps this person might have behaved in a way that disappointed you,
Frustrated you,
Or inconvenienced you.
Acknowledge that this person is facing difficulties and challenges that may likely be unknown to you.
What would it be like to see this person objectively as this person is?
How would it feel like to root in your faith of this person,
To root in your faith of this person knowing their unchanging qualities?
Now,
Let's take a deep breath in and a long breath out.
Now,
In your mind's eye,
Imagine that in the cinema,
As the director,
You have control to rewind the tape and change how the scene plays out.
See that you now have a second chance.
You are in a similar situation with this person,
And it is unfolding,
Playing out on the big screen right now.
In this second chance,
In this opportunity,
In this unfolding,
How would you like to respond or act towards this person knowing and feeling what you know and feel now?
As you connect with your choice for how you would like to respond or how you would like to respond towards this person,
Feel yourself in the presence of this person responding in the way you have now chosen.
See the scene play out in a different way.
And if and when you feel ready,
Feel the scene gradually coming to the end as the last scene closes and the credits begin to roll.
Feel a sense and a feeling of closure from the depths of your heart.
Know that any time you wish you can return to this practice.
Gently and slowly,
If your eyes are closed,
Let them blink open.
If your eyes are closed,
Let them blink open.
