"The two visualizations on Feel Forgiveness Now are designed to guide you into opening your heart and allowing the possibility of forgiveness to enter your life as an opportunity to heal painful experiences and recover from negative acts - either those inflicted upon you or actions that you may have made toward others," explains Dr. Rohde-Brown. "Forgiveness can bring profound joy and happiness into your own life."

The guided visualizations are based on a form of meditation known as Metta, or loving kindness. Metta is a heart-centered practice that involves visualizing oneself and others with an intentional gesture of love and compassion. It is a practice that fosters acceptance, as well as transcendence of negative patterns, habits, and attitudes.

The soundtrack to Feel Forgiveness Now is a harmonious blend of natural sounds and background music. Combining reverberating instruments such as wind chimes, Tibetan singing bowls, and karatalas cymbals, Shantha Sri's music assists listeners in focusing on the visualization, enhancing its effectiveness. "The sounds of the flowing stream, droplets in the cave, and forest birds all serve to deepen your experience, while the resonant tones encourage your breath and heart rate to slow and assist you to center your attention in your heart," says Shantha Sri.

Both guided visualizations are grounded in the element of water, a universal symbol of renewal. The first visualization is of lying down on warm stones in a stream as water spirals around each vertebrae of your spine as you allow yourself to develop the feeling of forgiveness toward another. The second visualization takes you to a cave behind a waterfall while you envision your own image and that of others within a glowing light. The symbol of the waterfall exemplifies the ever-changing nature of life, as you broaden your sense of love and compassion.

We entered Feel Forgiveness Now into the Just Plain Folks Music Awards over 15 months ago. To screen all the music and narrow down the field, Just Plain Folks used a unique mix of judges from the music industry, artist and songwriter peers and music fans. "We are honored to be among the nominees for these awards that are judged by fellow independent music creators," says Shantha Sri. "The value of these awards is that they acknowledge the work of the thousands of independent artists in the world that make up 98 percent of the music industry."

The 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards presentation will take place in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 29th. Winners' names will be announced live at the show and then posted on the Just Plain Folks website the next day. For a complete listing of this year's nominees and more information, please visit www.justplainfolks.org.