Signs of Guilt

Signs of Guilt

Guilty. What an awful feeling. We feel it when we have done, or think we’ve done, something bad, or when we haven’t done, or think we haven’t done, something good. Or when we didn’t do something we meant to do, or did do something we didn’t mean to do. Yikes.

Occasionally, we feel guilty and don’t know why.

Occasionally, we don’t even know we are feeling guilty, but we act like we are trying to make up for something we did that was really bad.

Most of us have never done anything that bad.  Many of us feel like we are a bad person, anyway. Sometimes we feel guilty because bad things were done to us. Oh. Golly.

Guilt is a really nasty lifestyle. Like Worry and Misery, Guilt is an addiction that feeds on our lifeforce, our time, our peace, our relationships.

If you feel like you can’t do enough, you probably feel guilty. If you feel like you have to bend over backwards, you probably feel guilty. You also likely have a sore back. If you feel like you can’t do anything right, you might feel guilty.

If you feel like you have to make up for something, you probably feel guilty. If you find yourself giving lavish gifts, or feeling like you always have to treat, or volunteering all of your free time, you’ve likely got the guilties.

If you hear yourself saying “sorry” all the time, if people mention that you say “sorry” too much, you probably feel guilty.

Here is a Truth:  You are not your behavior. You are responsible for your behavior, but you are not it. You are grace.

If you think you feel guilty, identify what you feel guilty about. Make amends. Move on.

If you find that you are feeling existential guilt, that is, guilt about just being alive, go get help. You deserve a nice life, you deserve to be happy, to have some leisure time, to live without the stink of guilt filling your nose.

Because you are innocent. You are pure.

If you are struggling to prove you are innocent, remember that we are pure; innocence is part of our natural state, and it exists in us effortlessly.

Guilt is something we learn to do, it takes work to learn to feel guilty, especially for a child where many of us learn to feel it. And, if we are stuck in feeling guilty, we will need to practice letting it go over and over and over.

And we need not to feel guilty about feeling guilty. Isn’t that a doozy! How do I know I am innocent? How do I know I am pure? Why am I free? What makes me clear?

Your precious self, your pure, innocent, perfect self, is worth saving from the ravages of guilt.

How have I changed from believing I am corrupt to knowing I am pure?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 04072013