What If You Could Finally Let Go?- Deep Trust series Ep 3

What if forgiveness wasn’t about them - but about you?

In this week’s episode of the Deep Trust mini-series, I explore one of the most powerful and misunderstood expressions of trust: forgiveness. Not forgiveness to excuse the past, but forgiveness as freedom - as the energetic release that opens the doorway to peace, healing, and your next most magnificent version of self.

I also share the story of the first time I chose to forgive- how that decision, made from anger and exhaustion, became the spark that changed everything- and the deeper forgiveness practice that followed years later as she began her coaching journey. You’ll be invited to reflect on how holding on keeps you stuck, and how letting go can become the ultimate act of self-trust and transcendence.

This conversation is a reminder that you can’t shame yourself into healing; you can only love yourself into it.

💜 Reflection Questions:

1. Who or what am I still holding resentment toward that’s taking up space in my energy?
2. What would it feel like to finally let go?
3. What would self-forgiveness look like for me right now?
4. What lesson or awareness might this experience have offered me?
5. How could releasing this open space for my next level of growth?

✨ Card Pull: “What if I trust MY path?”

Because forgiveness isn’t weakness - it’s freedom.

Join me for a FREE Class, How To Find Calm When Life Feels Like Too Much- Saturday, October 25th, 9am PT/12pm ET  https://programs.purepossibilities.net/how-to-find-calm-when-life-feels-like-too-much

Chapters

• 1:56 Welcome & Deep Trust Recap
• 2:34 Redefining Forgiveness
• 4:00 The Breaking Point: I’m Done
• 5:19 First Intentional Practice
• 6:25 Humanizing Those Who Hurt Us
• 7:54 Self-Forgiveness And Worthiness
• 10:46 Responsibility Without Shame
• 12:43 Step‑By‑Step Forgiveness Ritual
• 14:00 Noticing How We’ve Hurt Others
• 15:22 Weekly Reflection Prompts
• 16:13 Trust Your Path Card Pull
• 17:21 Forgiveness As Freedom & Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:58

Welcome back to the Pure Possibilities Podcast. I'm your host, Shannon, and I'm so appreciative that you are choosing to spend your very precious time with me today. And today is episode three of the Deep Trust miniseries. So far, we've explored what deep trust really means, that deep soul level knowing that even when life is happening, and maybe it's happening not the way you expect, that you're gonna be okay. And we've talked about self-trust being the foundation of all trust. And today we're diving into one of the most powerful and sometimes most misunderstood expressions of deep trust. Forgiveness. Not forgiveness for others, but forgiveness for your own peace and as a way to transcend into the next most powerful, magnificent version of yourself. What if you could finally let go? Forgiveness is one of those words that carries a lot of resistance for people. For many of us, it's tied to the idea that forgiving someone means you're excusing what happened, you're excusing their behavior, or you're letting them off the hook. But forgiveness isn't about them, it's about you. It's saying, I am done carrying this and I choose peace instead. It's not forgetting, it's not approving, it's simply releasing that energetic connection that drains your soul and your spirit. I did it out of frustration, anger, and definitely my ego. I had been holding on to so much anger, frustration, and resentment towards people who had hurt me deeply. And one day I had this moment where I just realized this isn't doing me any good. It's not helping the situation, it wasn't helping me heal, and it certainly wasn't changing anything for them. They weren't thinking about me, they weren't losing sleep over it. And I remember thinking, why am I giving so much of my energy to people who don't even care? It was exhausting. And that is when something clicked. It was more like a frustration of it was just like declaring, I'm done. I'm done. I can't do this anymore. But even that was so powerful because it was my first step to reclaiming my energy and reclaiming the power and control over my life. And at that time, I didn't have the awareness or the tools that I have now. But apparently, deep down, I knew this is my life and it's my responsibility to pick myself back up. And honestly, that's something that I've always done. No matter how hard things have gotten, I've always, I have always found my way back to myself. And it's not always easy, but my healing is my responsibility. That first forgiveness moment, even though it came from anger and it came from my ego, it truly opened the door to my healing. So then, fast forward several years later, when I started my life coaching journey, that's when I really began to understand what forgiveness truly meant. And I did an actual forgiveness practice for the first time, intentionally, consciously, rooted in love. I sat down in a quiet place, I put on some calming music, I made a list of everyone who had hurt me, either intentionally or unintentionally. And I was surprised. I was surprised by some of the names that came up when I was making that list. And then when I got to the very end of it, I realized that I needed to also forgive myself. And oh my gosh, did I cry? I cried and I cried and I cried. And then as I went back through the list to release and forgive and bring peace, I began to humanize each person a little bit more than I had. We all have life experiences that shape how we show up in our relationships, friendships, family, partnerships. And sometimes those experiences lead to behaviors or choices that cause harm to other people. And that doesn't make it right and it doesn't excuse what happened, but it helps you to see the bigger picture. And that day I went name by name, person by person, and I released them. I said, I forgive you, I release you, I choose peace. And then when I got to myself, I chose to forgive myself for the decisions I had made for staying too long in relationships that I knew deep down weren't serving me, for ignoring my intuition, for not being perfect. And that moment that self-forgiveness was even more freeing than forgiving anyone else. I cannot imagine where I'd be today, nine years later, if I had kept holding on to all of that anger and energy. And I think about that often and how forgiveness changed the entire direction of my life. I would not be here right now with you if I was just sitting here holding on to that. And I am truly in a place now where I, from the deepest part of my heart, I want the people that I felt had wronged me at the time. Like I hope they're happy. Like, and that's genuine. That is genuine deep in my heart and soul. Because when you forgive, you release yourself from the past and you create space for something new and new doors will open for you when you choose to allow yourself to do that. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you let people walk all over you. It doesn't mean you forget what happened. It means you're choosing to not let that pain define your present or your future. And self-forgiveness is one of the bravest things that you can do. I've known a lot of people, including myself, that have carried guilt and shame throughout their life because of choices that they made in the past. And they felt like they didn't deserve anything different than what they were allowing into their life in this moment. Maybe they don't feel like they actually deserve to be happy because of things that they had done. And I felt that way about myself for a long time. And it's not true. It's not true when you choose to forgive yourself for choices and decisions and behaviors that are from the past. It's very freeing. And we all I don't want to say screw up because that's not the right word. But we all do things that might be dumb. We make dumb choices, especially when we're younger, you know, and we hold on to that. And then we torture ourselves, maybe not consciously, but we have that cycle of I should have known better. I made my bed. Now I have to lie in it. I don't deserve to be happy after what I did. That's a big one. And sometimes that stems from decisions from you know, your younger years when you're off partying and doing all these things, or maybe staying in a relationship longer than you knew that you should have, or staying in a job for longer than you should have, you know, who knows what it is. And people will give up and feel like they just don't deserve to be happy. And that's not true. A lot of times we're doing what we need to do to survive and move through whatever our circumstances are in that moment, but that doesn't mean you don't deserve to have a happy, fulfilling life that you just have to settle for whatever because of choices and decisions that you made in the past. When you're guilting and shaming yourself and having those beliefs, that doesn't make you responsible. It keeps you imprisoned. When you're truly taking responsibility, you're saying, I accept what happened, I understand my part in it, I've learned from it, and I choose to move forward. I choose to move forward. And when we can learn from those previous decisions and choose to move forward in love, that's the difference. You can take ownership without punishing yourself. You cannot shame yourself into healing. You can only love yourself into it and through it. So I would like to share the forgiveness practice with you. And if you want to experience this for yourself, here's something that you can do: find a quiet space, take a few deep breaths, put on relaxing music if that feels good for you, and have a journal or piece of paper and write a list of everyone who has hurt you intentionally or unintentionally, and maybe include yourself on the list, and then one by one, read each name out loud and say, I forgive you, I release you, I choose peace. When you reach your own name, take a deep breath and place your hand on your heart and say, I forgive myself for not knowing then what I know now. I forgive myself for being human. I release the guilt, the shame, the self-blame. I choose love, peace, and freedom. You can keep your list, you can burn it safely, tear it up, or simply visualize letting it go, whatever feels right for you. If you do choose to burn it, please choose to do it in a safe space. One thing that came up for me when I was doing the forgiveness practice was that I realized obviously there were people's names that came up on the list that I wasn't expecting, like people from elementary school and things like that, which was very interesting to me. And also I realized that I had also hurt people. Not intentionally. I don't go through my life intentionally planning to hurt people. I don't think any of us do. But that's why this is people who intentionally or unintentionally hurt you because we've all done it, not on purpose, but you know, like I mentioned earlier, we all have our own experiences in our life. And we aren't responsible for what happened to us, but we are all responsible for our own healing. And I just found that to be very interesting. I was like, oh, I actually have hurt people. And I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that I've hurt that I don't even realize that I did. And for that, I am truly deeply sorry. And I choose now to move through my life with more conscious awareness. And I am choosing to heal my trauma and my wounds from my life. Okay, now we're going to move into our reflection prompts for the week. So if you still have that journal available, the first one is who or what am I still holding resentment towards that's taking up space in my energy? What would it feel like to finally let go? What would self-forgiveness look like for me right now? What lesson or awareness might this experience have offered me? How could releasing this open space for my next level of growth? Take your time with these, and you don't have to rush the process. Forgiveness happens in layers. And it it can take time. It can take time, and that's okay. All right, let's close today with a card from the magic of what if card deck volume two. They are available on my website, purepossibilitiespodcast.com. All right, today's card. What if I trust my path? What if I trust my path? Not anyone else's path. What if I trust my path? Because everyone's path is different. It is. And I love that that card came up because a lot of times you know, people think that they know what's best for us. And they don't always you know what's best for you. So trust your path because it's beautiful and magical and it's not like anyone else's. Trust that even the hard, messy parts of your path are working for your highest good. And it's your path. So remember this. Forgiveness isn't weakness, it's freedom. It's saying that you love yourself enough to release the pain and the anger and the energy that you're putting into holding that grudge. And it takes a lot of energy to be angry. It really does. And when you can soften that and release it and humanize the people that are in your story, it's very freeing. And when you forgive, especially when you forgive yourself, you are telling the universe, I trust life, I trust my path, and I've learned the lessons that I needed to learn. And I am open to receiving the next level of myself. And I am open to moving forward on my path. And show me what's next. Next time we're gonna talk about what happens after forgiveness, how peace becomes your new foundation, and how trust deepens when you finally stop fighting the past. Until then, keep listening to your body talk, keep trusting your energy, and remember your body always knows. Have a beautiful, beautiful day and an amazing week. Much love.