Feeling Guilty?

Guilt, what a lovely word.  The most amazing thing about guilt is that it is something we are taught to feel.  And something we continue to teach our children to feel.  Why do we feel the need for guilt?  It is a matter of control.  If I can make you feel guilty for doing something that I didn’t want you to do then I have the control.  Guilt will make you think twice before doing the action that I don’t want.  Now the thing to remember is that guilt does not stop people from doing those things that make them feel guilty.  If it did then there would be no crime, no war, no arguments, no disobedience of any kind.  We would all do exactly as we were told just because we didn’t want to feel guilt.

 

We have whole systems set up to create guilt and deal with the punishment of the guilty.  Our legal system is set up so that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.  Yeah, right!  We as a society have beliefs that only the guilty ones are ever arrested.  We as a society believe that police or authority figures are to be trusted and those accused of a crime are not to be trusted.  We set this up so that those in power always win, or at least most of the time.  That is why when a powerful person is arrested the picture on the news will usually show them doing some act of kindness while for a regular person the picture shown is usually a mug shot or video showing their guilt.  Our systems are not set up to be fair.  It’s like what they say about history, it is written by the ones who win.  Our systems are set up by the ones in power and designed so that they stay in power. 

 

Guilt is a wasted emotion.  Feeling guilt does not undo what has been done.  It doesn’t change anything and yet we make a big deal out of it.  We go easier on the ones who say that they are sorry.  We teach our children to say they are sorry even when they don’t mean it.  We act like all you have to do is say you are sorry and then everything can be okay again.  We teach them to swallow their emotions so that we can feel better about the situation.  We short change them and ourselves.

 

We’ve all know people that take guilt to the extreme.  It could be the minister who always preaches about how full of sin you are and how you will never go to heaven unless you repent.  It could be the teacher who blames you every time something goes wrong in class whether you did it or not.  It could be the parent who believes that one of their children can do no wrong and the other can do no right.  It is all about guilt, punishment and control.  It is all designed to keep you in line.  It is all a matter of showing you that it is more important to be right than to be happy.

 

How do we get out of guilt?  By recognizing pure unconditional love.  With unconditional love you are always loved, no matter what.  There is nothing that you can ever do or say or be that would ever cause that love to be withheld.  In many religions the Creator is said to be unconditional love but then we are taught about sin.  How can there be sin if there are no conditions?  What is sin?  In biblical Hebrew, sin means to err, to miss the mark.  It does not mean to do evil.  That means that if you commit a sin all you have done is made a mistake.  It’s just a way for you to see what doesn’t work in your life. It is not something that you need to be punished for. 

 

Many of us lug around a big bag of our past mistakes, our sins our unconscious guilt.  We still feel sorry or angry or justified because we haven’t let it go.  We haven’t forgiven ourselves and everyone else invloved.  Forgiveness is not just saying I’m sorry, true forgiveness means you don’t judge and condemn another or yourself.  It means accepting that everyone is innocent and allowing yourself to love them and yourself.  What do you get with true forgivenenss, inner peace and happiness.  You take back the power and control of your own life, your own happiness.  You get to dump that big bag and enjoy your existence.  Is it worth it?  That’s for you to decide.  To learn more about forgiveness go to: http://www.divinelyguidedhealing.com/forgiveness.html