February 12, 2025 • 16 mins
💔 Struggling to forgive yourself for past mistakes?
In this episode of the Self Help Show, Gina-Margaret Tiger reveals how self-forgiveness is the ultimate act of healing and personal growth. Whether you’re dealing with shame, regret, or self-sabotage—this episode gives you the tools to let go and move forward with clarity and compassion.
🧠 What You’ll Learn:
00:00 – Why We Struggle to Forgive Ourselves
02:15 – Guilt ≠ Growth: The Truth About Shame
05:10 – How Self-Blame Creates Emotional Blockage
07:20 – The 3-Step Self-Forgiveness Blueprint
10:00 – “The Mirror Apology” & Daily Self-Compassion Tools
12:45 – The Forgiveness Prayer That Changed My Life
15:00 – Releasing the Past & Moving Toward Purpose
❤️ Episode Highlights:
• Why holding on to guilt keeps you emotionally stuck
• How to separate your identity from your mistakes
• Self-compassion tools to rewire your inner critic
• A neuroscience-backed guide to healing & self-love
📝 Journal Prompt:
“What mistake have I allowed to define me—and how would it feel to let it go today?”
📿 Affirmation:
“I forgive myself. I am worthy of peace, joy, and a second chance.”
🌱 Action Step:
Practice “The Mirror Apology” and repeat:
“I made a mistake, and I still deserve love and happiness.”
💥 This episode is your permission slip to stop suffering in silence and start living in wholeness.
✨ Share this with a friend stuck in shame or self-blame—and let’s heal together.
✔️ Rate ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🎧 Follow the Self Help Show for weekly episodes on mindset, emotional healing, and transformation.
how to forgive yourself, self forgiveness, let go of guilt, healing from shame, emotional healing podcast, self help for regret, how to move on from mistakes, trauma recovery, personal growth podcast, mirror work healing
#ForgiveYourself #SelfForgiveness #SelfHelpPodcast #EmotionalHealing #LetGoOfGuilt #HealingJourney #PodcastForGrowth #InnerPeace #ShameHealing #GrowthMindset
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello! Welcome to yet another episode of A Thousand Voices. My name is Gina and I
(00:05):
am your host. This is chapter 8 and on this chapter I am talking about all
things forgiveness. First episode of this chapter I spoke about what forgiveness
is and what it is not. Then the next episode after that was the cost of
holding on. So you need to just go back and understand where I'm coming from
(00:29):
because in this particular chapter I will be talking about forgiveness from
yourself. So what this means is we are focusing on self-forgiveness, letting go
of your own mistakes. This is a very big topic because I think sometimes we know
(00:49):
the mistakes that we have done and we know where we have messed up and we
struggle to come back from that. It may take weeks, months, years. However, I want
you to listen to me today and realize that you need to let your own mistakes
go. You need to forgive yourself. If you know someone that has done some terrible
(01:15):
things to themselves or maybe they misjudged, miscommunicated, misunderstood,
made a mistake at work, could be a personal life, made a mistake that could
have costed so much more in their life or somebody else's life and they are
living in a ditch of regret, I want you to send them this podcast so they can
(01:39):
have a listen. I understand why it's so difficult to forgive yourself from your
own mistakes and which takes us to the first part that I want to talk about. We
often find it so difficult to let go or at least look at our own mistakes. It is
(02:00):
so hard because we are often the hardest critics to our own selves. You know why
it's so difficult because sometimes you're always pointing fingers at others
oh you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to do that or you must be
like this, you must uphold this certain standard, you must do this XYZ blah blah
blah. However when you now make that mistake you are the biggest critic
(02:29):
because you realize that you have been crucifying other people so now you have
to like double crucify yourself right. So you spend time just replaying those
mistakes in your head for long when you should actually just let it go. Another
thing is society doesn't really teach us about self-forgiveness. It only teaches
(02:53):
us about forgiving other people but it doesn't really talk about oh you need to
forgive yourself for accepting that and you need to forgive yourself for making
that decision that later led you to XYZ. So many people believe actually that if
they feel bad or they carry the guilt is equivalent to the punishment they
(03:17):
deserve for that mistake. So they believe that keeping that mistake, holding on to
that pain is some sort of punishment and they deserve to feel that pain because
they you know they messed up. So they struggle to let go and they keep getting
(03:38):
stuck in that vicious loop of thinking about what they did. So today I'm here
to tell you that that is only keeping you stuck. It's preventing you growth and
healing and self acceptance. Okay so I want you to understand that it's okay to
accept that I made a mistake. It's okay to understand that I made a bad choice.
(04:03):
It's okay to understand that this decision that I took it might have been
the wrong one. That does not mean you are a bad person. Okay so that guilt you can
actually use it as a learning tool instead of turning it into shame or
toxicity. You have to resolve that shame because if you don't now that thought of
(04:32):
you feeling guilt and feeling shameful when new opportunities come or new
circumstances come they lead to like that feeling will now lead you to self
sabotage. You now avoid certain things or you even have destructive behaviors
(04:54):
because you are constantly reminding yourself of that shame and of that guilt
and you feel like you just need to be in that corner or hide underground or you
know whatever case may be you keep on punishing yourself. So you have to just
let go of your own mistakes. You cannot let your own mistakes hold you hostage.
(05:18):
You have to grow. You have to let go of that guilt and grow out of that
situation. Learn something from it. So here's some of the ways you can change
your mindset towards this. Instead of saying I messed up try to say to yourself
I've learned a hard lesson. Okay I'm taking an L right. Take the L. Take the
(05:45):
lesson. Don't let those mistakes define you or how you grow from that. Allow
yourself to accept because you didn't know. Most times you did not know how it
would turn out. Most times you thought it would be the other way but it's not that.
So you have to forgive yourself. You have to understand that you made a mistake.
(06:10):
You are learning and now that you learn next time you will definitely make a
wiser decision. Don't allow those mistakes to define you. You need to ask
yourself what did this experience teach me? How can I apply this wisdom forward?
(06:30):
Okay then own it. Yes you messed up. I messed up. Forgive yourself. I'm sorry I
messed up. Yo I really messed up. I really really really messed up this time. Oh I am
so sorry. I wish that in the future I make wiser decisions. Own up to your
(06:52):
mistakes and then release them. Acknowledge what happened without any
judgment. So denying or trying to continuously self-crisis will only
lead to denial and that will delay your healing. So you have to take
(07:15):
responsibility where necessary and please don't dwell in the self-blame.
Otherwise you'll be stuck there. So another thing speak to yourself with
kindness right. Acknowledge that you made a mistake. I made a mistake. I'm still
worthy of love and happiness because we are all human at the end of the day. So
(07:38):
whatever mistake that you did does not define you. It was a mistake and that's
it. Mistakes happen. Nobody's perfect. Accept yourself just the way you are.
Practice self-compassion. How would you talk to a loved one right if they've
probably done something wrong. I know in most cases somebody would say I would
(08:03):
yell at them and shout at them and say oh you messed up or you did this or you
did that but in actual fact how we need to speak to ourselves is with so much
self-compassion. So you can speak to yourself and tell yourself that I am
not my past and I deserve peace. I forgive myself and I am still worthy of
(08:27):
love and happiness and let that go. Like let all of that go. So you need to now
shift the moment you acknowledge. You need to now shift towards growth. So
focus on how this experience has shaped your life. Yes I know you may be in a
(08:48):
worse situation but look at how it has made you or shaped you into a better
version of yourself right. Then use that mistake as a stepping stone to propel
forward. Instead of focusing on what went wrong, focus on what you can do right
moving forward because to be honest nobody's gonna go back into the past and
(09:11):
fix whatever that has been done. Today is the 12th of February. This day has
already done. There's no way I'm gonna go back in the morning. So you need to
work like that. You need to think like that. Like okay that mistake that I did
there is no way I'm ever gonna go back but how can I make myself better for the
(09:34):
next day or for the next hour or for the next minute. Understand that you need to
forgive yourself as that is a decision. So give yourself permission. Allow
yourself to move forward. Release the idea that you're suffering forever and
let go of the guilt today and ask yourself what possibilities are open to
(09:58):
me because remember we are infinite potential. We are the children of God and
God is infinite potential. So ask yourself what possibilities are opening
up for me. Alright so you are not your mistake. You are growth. You are growing.
(10:18):
You are resilient and you have the ability to move on and move forward.
Forgive yourself not because you are coming up with an excuse of what you did
no but you are acknowledging what you did and because of that you deserve
peace. You deserve peace of mind in your present moment. I look forward to sharing
(10:46):
episode the next episode after this because I'll be talking about
forgiveness in relationships but before we go I want to help you with the
forgiveness prayer that I learned today in my walk. I was listening to The Power
of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy and there was a chapter towards
(11:10):
the end that he spoke about forgiveness. Why forgiveness is important and the
reason why I'm doing this chapter in the very first place. Forgiveness sets you
free. Forgiveness sets the other person free and forgiveness for the bigger part
brings new opportunities into your life because once you let go you open
(11:32):
yourself up and you allow new experiences and new opportunities to come
in. So here's a prayer that I want to share with you. I've already used it and
ever since I did I literally witnessed a complete transformation within my life
because yes I'm a human being as well as much as I speak about forgiveness. There's
(11:54):
also people that did me wrong. There's also people that have hurt me and I may
have tried to forgive them but you know that it's like it's like you are digging.
That's how I see it. I dig the first layer of forgiveness. I dig again. I dig
again. I dig again until I fully hit the surface where I completely completely
(12:17):
forgive each and every single person that's ever hurt me and do this
practice. Sit and think about everybody because sometimes you may think that
it's the person that hurt you last week or last month or last six months or last
year but if you look back there's people that have hurt you from since as long as
(12:38):
you can remember and all those people you are still holding them. You're still
tying on to them. So I am allowing you to release all those people. Release
whatever they did to you and forgive them. Forgive each and every single
person that has done you wrong. So here's the forgiveness prayer. You can look it
(13:00):
up. It's a book by Joseph Marffy called The Power of Your Subconscious Mind and
trust me the power of your subconscious mind is a multi-layered channel which
unravels right and one of the things that is very important to understanding
the power of your subconscious mind one of the thing is to let go of people that
(13:23):
have hurt you because that will liberate you. So quiet your mind and relax your
body and let go. Think of God and His love for you. Okay think of God and His
love for you and all the blessings that He's blessed you with. Then affirm I
(13:45):
fully and freely forgive then you mention the name of the person right be
intentional with this I fully and freely forgive--- I release you
today mentally and spiritually I completely forgive everything connected
(14:05):
with the matter in question I am free and--- is free like you can mention
the name or you can say he or she is free in in today so as you're saying that
prayer right it is my day of general amnesty right so in your day of general
(14:27):
amnesty say this I release everybody and anybody who's hurt me and I wish each
and everyone happiness health peace and all the blessings of life I do this
freely joyously and loving all right once you say this whenever you think
(14:53):
about the person that has hurt you or the people that have hurt you right the
people that you have to forgive you say I have released you and all the blessings
of life are yours I am free and you are free and it is wonderful and you let go
(15:13):
once you have forgiven that person intentionally and sincerely it is
unnecessary for you to repeat this prayer okay so whenever now maybe you're
just doing your own thing and all of a sudden they you know they come up in
your head just say peace be unto you and then you let it go every time they come
(15:36):
up in your head you always say peace be unto you and then you let it go go and
practice this and come back and tell me what you think I always have an amazing
time sharing on this podcast and I hope whatever I'm sharing you also allow
other people to experience it by sharing this too next I'm talking about
(16:02):
relationships or forgiveness in relationships enjoy
Hello! Welcome to yet another episode of A Thousand Voices. My name is Gina and I
(00:05):
am your host. This is chapter 8 and on this chapter I am talking about all
things forgiveness. First episode of this chapter I spoke about what forgiveness
is and what it is not. Then the next episode after that was the cost of
holding on. So you need to just go back and understand where I'm coming from
(00:29):
because in this particular chapter I will be talking about forgiveness from
yourself. So what this means is we are focusing on self-forgiveness, letting go
of your own mistakes. This is a very big topic because I think sometimes we know
(00:49):
the mistakes that we have done and we know where we have messed up and we
struggle to come back from that. It may take weeks, months, years. However, I want
you to listen to me today and realize that you need to let your own mistakes
go. You need to forgive yourself. If you know someone that has done some terrible
(01:15):
things to themselves or maybe they misjudged, miscommunicated, misunderstood,
made a mistake at work, could be a personal life, made a mistake that could
have costed so much more in their life or somebody else's life and they are
living in a ditch of regret, I want you to send them this podcast so they can
(01:39):
have a listen. I understand why it's so difficult to forgive yourself from your
own mistakes and which takes us to the first part that I want to talk about. We
often find it so difficult to let go or at least look at our own mistakes. It is
(02:00):
so hard because we are often the hardest critics to our own selves. You know why
it's so difficult because sometimes you're always pointing fingers at others
oh you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to do that or you must be
like this, you must uphold this certain standard, you must do this XYZ blah blah
blah. However when you now make that mistake you are the biggest critic
(02:29):
because you realize that you have been crucifying other people so now you have
to like double crucify yourself right. So you spend time just replaying those
mistakes in your head for long when you should actually just let it go. Another
thing is society doesn't really teach us about self-forgiveness. It only teaches
(02:53):
us about forgiving other people but it doesn't really talk about oh you need to
forgive yourself for accepting that and you need to forgive yourself for making
that decision that later led you to XYZ. So many people believe actually that if
they feel bad or they carry the guilt is equivalent to the punishment they
(03:17):
deserve for that mistake. So they believe that keeping that mistake, holding on to
that pain is some sort of punishment and they deserve to feel that pain because
they you know they messed up. So they struggle to let go and they keep getting
(03:38):
stuck in that vicious loop of thinking about what they did. So today I'm here
to tell you that that is only keeping you stuck. It's preventing you growth and
healing and self acceptance. Okay so I want you to understand that it's okay to
accept that I made a mistake. It's okay to understand that I made a bad choice.
(04:03):
It's okay to understand that this decision that I took it might have been
the wrong one. That does not mean you are a bad person. Okay so that guilt you can
actually use it as a learning tool instead of turning it into shame or
toxicity. You have to resolve that shame because if you don't now that thought of
(04:32):
you feeling guilt and feeling shameful when new opportunities come or new
circumstances come they lead to like that feeling will now lead you to self
sabotage. You now avoid certain things or you even have destructive behaviors
(04:54):
because you are constantly reminding yourself of that shame and of that guilt
and you feel like you just need to be in that corner or hide underground or you
know whatever case may be you keep on punishing yourself. So you have to just
let go of your own mistakes. You cannot let your own mistakes hold you hostage.
(05:18):
You have to grow. You have to let go of that guilt and grow out of that
situation. Learn something from it. So here's some of the ways you can change
your mindset towards this. Instead of saying I messed up try to say to yourself
I've learned a hard lesson. Okay I'm taking an L right. Take the L. Take the
(05:45):
lesson. Don't let those mistakes define you or how you grow from that. Allow
yourself to accept because you didn't know. Most times you did not know how it
would turn out. Most times you thought it would be the other way but it's not that.
So you have to forgive yourself. You have to understand that you made a mistake.
(06:10):
You are learning and now that you learn next time you will definitely make a
wiser decision. Don't allow those mistakes to define you. You need to ask
yourself what did this experience teach me? How can I apply this wisdom forward?
(06:30):
Okay then own it. Yes you messed up. I messed up. Forgive yourself. I'm sorry I
messed up. Yo I really messed up. I really really really messed up this time. Oh I am
so sorry. I wish that in the future I make wiser decisions. Own up to your
(06:52):
mistakes and then release them. Acknowledge what happened without any
judgment. So denying or trying to continuously self-crisis will only
lead to denial and that will delay your healing. So you have to take
(07:15):
responsibility where necessary and please don't dwell in the self-blame.
Otherwise you'll be stuck there. So another thing speak to yourself with
kindness right. Acknowledge that you made a mistake. I made a mistake. I'm still
worthy of love and happiness because we are all human at the end of the day. So
(07:38):
whatever mistake that you did does not define you. It was a mistake and that's
it. Mistakes happen. Nobody's perfect. Accept yourself just the way you are.
Practice self-compassion. How would you talk to a loved one right if they've
probably done something wrong. I know in most cases somebody would say I would
(08:03):
yell at them and shout at them and say oh you messed up or you did this or you
did that but in actual fact how we need to speak to ourselves is with so much
self-compassion. So you can speak to yourself and tell yourself that I am
not my past and I deserve peace. I forgive myself and I am still worthy of
(08:27):
love and happiness and let that go. Like let all of that go. So you need to now
shift the moment you acknowledge. You need to now shift towards growth. So
focus on how this experience has shaped your life. Yes I know you may be in a
(08:48):
worse situation but look at how it has made you or shaped you into a better
version of yourself right. Then use that mistake as a stepping stone to propel
forward. Instead of focusing on what went wrong, focus on what you can do right
moving forward because to be honest nobody's gonna go back into the past and
(09:11):
fix whatever that has been done. Today is the 12th of February. This day has
already done. There's no way I'm gonna go back in the morning. So you need to
work like that. You need to think like that. Like okay that mistake that I did
there is no way I'm ever gonna go back but how can I make myself better for the
(09:34):
next day or for the next hour or for the next minute. Understand that you need to
forgive yourself as that is a decision. So give yourself permission. Allow
yourself to move forward. Release the idea that you're suffering forever and
let go of the guilt today and ask yourself what possibilities are open to
(09:58):
me because remember we are infinite potential. We are the children of God and
God is infinite potential. So ask yourself what possibilities are opening
up for me. Alright so you are not your mistake. You are growth. You are growing.
(10:18):
You are resilient and you have the ability to move on and move forward.
Forgive yourself not because you are coming up with an excuse of what you did
no but you are acknowledging what you did and because of that you deserve
peace. You deserve peace of mind in your present moment. I look forward to sharing
(10:46):
episode the next episode after this because I'll be talking about
forgiveness in relationships but before we go I want to help you with the
forgiveness prayer that I learned today in my walk. I was listening to The Power
of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy and there was a chapter towards
(11:10):
the end that he spoke about forgiveness. Why forgiveness is important and the
reason why I'm doing this chapter in the very first place. Forgiveness sets you
free. Forgiveness sets the other person free and forgiveness for the bigger part
brings new opportunities into your life because once you let go you open
(11:32):
yourself up and you allow new experiences and new opportunities to come
in. So here's a prayer that I want to share with you. I've already used it and
ever since I did I literally witnessed a complete transformation within my life
because yes I'm a human being as well as much as I speak about forgiveness. There's
(11:54):
also people that did me wrong. There's also people that have hurt me and I may
have tried to forgive them but you know that it's like it's like you are digging.
That's how I see it. I dig the first layer of forgiveness. I dig again. I dig
again. I dig again until I fully hit the surface where I completely completely
(12:17):
forgive each and every single person that's ever hurt me and do this
practice. Sit and think about everybody because sometimes you may think that
it's the person that hurt you last week or last month or last six months or last
year but if you look back there's people that have hurt you from since as long as
(12:38):
you can remember and all those people you are still holding them. You're still
tying on to them. So I am allowing you to release all those people. Release
whatever they did to you and forgive them. Forgive each and every single
person that has done you wrong. So here's the forgiveness prayer. You can look it
(13:00):
up. It's a book by Joseph Marffy called The Power of Your Subconscious Mind and
trust me the power of your subconscious mind is a multi-layered channel which
unravels right and one of the things that is very important to understanding
the power of your subconscious mind one of the thing is to let go of people that
(13:23):
have hurt you because that will liberate you. So quiet your mind and relax your
body and let go. Think of God and His love for you. Okay think of God and His
love for you and all the blessings that He's blessed you with. Then affirm I
(13:45):
fully and freely forgive then you mention the name of the person right be
intentional with this I fully and freely forgive--- I release you
today mentally and spiritually I completely forgive everything connected
(14:05):
with the matter in question I am free and--- is free like you can mention
the name or you can say he or she is free in in today so as you're saying that
prayer right it is my day of general amnesty right so in your day of general
(14:27):
amnesty say this I release everybody and anybody who's hurt me and I wish each
and everyone happiness health peace and all the blessings of life I do this
freely joyously and loving all right once you say this whenever you think
(14:53):
about the person that has hurt you or the people that have hurt you right the
people that you have to forgive you say I have released you and all the blessings
of life are yours I am free and you are free and it is wonderful and you let go
(15:13):
once you have forgiven that person intentionally and sincerely it is
unnecessary for you to repeat this prayer okay so whenever now maybe you're
just doing your own thing and all of a sudden they you know they come up in
your head just say peace be unto you and then you let it go every time they come
(15:36):
up in your head you always say peace be unto you and then you let it go go and
practice this and come back and tell me what you think I always have an amazing
time sharing on this podcast and I hope whatever I'm sharing you also allow
other people to experience it by sharing this too next I'm talking about
(16:02):
relationships or forgiveness in relationships enjoy
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