loader from loading.io

A Forgiveness Meditation to Let Go of Added Suffering with Mark Bertin

12 Minute Meditation

Release Date: 11/14/2025

A Meditation to Help You Let Go and Accept Change show art A Meditation to Help You Let Go and Accept Change

12 Minute Meditation

Everything is impermanent. It’s always changing, coming together and falling apart. This, of course, includes small daily things and massive, disruptive, and life-shattering things.  It’s frustrating to not be able to control these movements and outcomes. But paradoxically, when we can accept that everything is not up to us, and we stop trying to control what we can’t change or trying to predict what we can’t predict, then we can feel a lot more at ease and more open to the moment-to-moment unfolding of our lives.  This week, Kimberly Brown shares a practice to loosen our...

info_outline
A Meditation to Return to Ourselves When Practicing Feels Impossible show art A Meditation to Return to Ourselves When Practicing Feels Impossible

12 Minute Meditation

Many of us are bearing witness daily to suffering all over the planet. We care about others, and we want desperately to be of use—and seeing the horrors in images and videos and stories every day can be deeply dysregulating to our nervous systems.  When we get overwhelmed by this vicarious trauma, we tend to shut down. We disconnect from ourselves and each other. We’re so spun out in our anxiety, anger, or overwhelm that it can feel impossible to engage in any kind of mindfulness or meditation practice.  This week, Shalini Bahl offers tender and practical guidance for how to...

info_outline
A Meditation to Tap Into Your Agency When Things Are Chaotic & Uncertain show art A Meditation to Tap Into Your Agency When Things Are Chaotic & Uncertain

12 Minute Meditation

We often treat experiences like restlessness, uncertainty, or the overwhelm of difficult emotions as a problem to be solved. And of course, it’s normal to want relief.  Today, teacher Cherl Vigder Brause leads a guided practice that’s centered around meeting ourselves exactly where we are. In that pause, where we encounter ourselves without trying to fix anything, even if just for a moment, we actually create a space where we can get clarity on how to respond to ourselves, others, and the world.  Cheryl Vigder Brause is a nationally recognized mindfulness and meditation teacher,...

info_outline
A Meditation to Connect With Loving-Kindness (Even When It's Hard) show art A Meditation to Connect With Loving-Kindness (Even When It's Hard)

12 Minute Meditation

Loving-kindness seems like a practice that would feel good—but in times of tension, uncertainty, pain, or anger, it can be one of the most challenging mindfulness tools to apply. How do we love when it is most difficult to love?   This week, renowned teacher Sharon Salzberg offers a guided practice to connect us to the deep heart and transformative courage of metta or loving-kindness meditation.   Sharon Salzberg is a meditation teacher and New York Times best-selling author. She is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and has played a...

info_outline
A Meditation to Skillfully Connect With Your Anger show art A Meditation to Skillfully Connect With Your Anger

12 Minute Meditation

As today’s teacher Jessica Morey says, “Anger’s fundamental role is to protect us and protect what we care about in the world. It lets us know when a limit of ours, or a boundary, has been crossed.” But because of its power and volatility, anger can be a troubling emotion to be with and a difficult one to work with. Today’s practice is aimed at gaining insight into our anger so that we can respond skillfully in any given situation. Jessica Morey is a meditation teacher and coach. She has been practicing meditation for almost three decades. She is also the co-founder and former...

info_outline
A Meditation For When Suffering In the World Feels Heavy show art A Meditation For When Suffering In the World Feels Heavy

12 Minute Meditation

Many of us are carrying the weight of the world’s suffering right now. How can we acknowledge the immense suffering around us, and our own—and still tend to our hearts, minds, and bodies in a way that keeps us grounded and able to take compassionate action?  This week, mindfulness teacher and author Wendy O’Leary shares a guided practice that offers refuge and reminds us of our real and loving connection to one another.    Wendy O’Leary, M.Ed., author and health educator, has three children’s books and an adult book on self-compassion in families. She is a...

info_outline
A Meditation for Compassionately Noticing Food Cravings and Triggers show art A Meditation for Compassionately Noticing Food Cravings and Triggers

12 Minute Meditation

Our brains learn through a process that has three components: trigger, behavior, reward. Together these behaviors form what is known as a habit loop.  In today’s meditation, Dr. Brewer walks us through a practice to notice triggers—when they’re happening and how they make us feel. When we pay attention to these triggers, we can respond to ourselves with more compassion and make choices with a lot more clarity. Jud Brewer, MD, Ph.D. (“Dr. Jud”) is a New York Times best-selling author and thought leader in the field of habit change and the “science of self-mastery,” who blends...

info_outline
A Meditation on Endings with Frank Ostaseski show art A Meditation on Endings with Frank Ostaseski

12 Minute Meditation

Even if they aren't particularly into making resolutions, for many people the New Year still feels like a fresh start: a time for taking stock, for reviewing what's passed, for turning the page on one chapter and starting another.  In today’s meditation, teacher Frank Ostaseski asks: How do you meet endings? We can learn a lot about how we face the new by looking at how we let go of the old, and here Ostaseski offers a practice to surrender with curiosity and gratitude.  Frank Ostaseski is a meditation teacher who cofounded the Zen Hospice Project. In 2004, he went on to create the...

info_outline
A Meditation to Set an Intention for Your Future with Rich Fernandez show art A Meditation to Set an Intention for Your Future with Rich Fernandez

12 Minute Meditation

If you’ve grown weary of traditional resolutions, but you still carry a glimmer of hope that positive change is possible for us imperfect humans—then you’ll love mindful intention-setting.  In this practice from his , mindful leadership trainer Rich Fernandez shows us how to vividly envision the “imagine if” possibilities. When we tap into meaning, passion, and a felt sense of welcoming what we long for, it’s easier to get clear on the purpose behind our pursuits.  Rich Fernandez is the former CEO of Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI). He was previously...

info_outline
A Meditation to Release & Ease Holiday Stress with Christiane Wolf show art A Meditation to Release & Ease Holiday Stress with Christiane Wolf

12 Minute Meditation

The holiday season can be a time full of commitments, planning, and (pleasant or unpleasant) anticipation.  This extended guided practice with Dr. Christiane Wolf offers a quiet respite that can help you identify what you need, move to care for yourself, and navigate stress that may arise.   Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD is a former physician, internationally known mindfulness and Insight (Vipassana) meditation teacher. She is passionate about translating ancient wisdom teachings into accessible and applicable modern-day language. She is the author of Outsmart Your Pain –...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

Forgiveness is almost never a one-and-done action. Whether what we’re forgiving is big or small, our own error or someone else’s—most often, there are residual feelings of anger, hurt, or resentment to contend with. 

In this guided practice, Mark Bertin addresses this tendency to compound our suffering when we hang onto these difficult emotions. He offers a way to gently surrender this extra emotional baggage so that we can fully experience the healing that forgiveness offers.

Mark Bertin, MD, is a pediatrician, author, professor, and mindfulness teacher specializing in neurodevelopmental behavioral pediatrics. He’s a regular contributor to Mindful.org and Psychology Today. He is the author of How Children Thrive: The Practical Science of Raising Independent, Resilient, and Happy Kids (Sounds True, 2018). Dr. Bertin resides in Pleasantville, New York. For more, visit developmentaldoctor.com.

The transcription of this guided meditation will be online at Mindful.org next week. 

Stay curious, stay inspired. Join our community by signing up for our free newsletter:  mindful.org/signup

Show Notes

Find more from Dr. Mark Bertin here.

Go Deeper

Forgiveness is one of the most challenging mindful qualities to develop. Understandably, we want to feel seen and heard in our pain, and we don’t want to feel like we’re being walked over or making excuses for harmful behavior. From a mindfulness perspective, forgiveness holds all of these experiences in a kind of loving tension, allowing the complexities to surface. To learn more about what forgiveness is (and isn’t) and how to nurture it in your daily life, check out these resources from the website:

If you’re at the very beginning of the process and want help getting started on your forgiveness journey, try this practice: A Guided Meditation to Welcome Forgiveness

And more from Mindful here:

More episodes of 12 Minute MeditationLet us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing yourwords@mindful.org.