Guilt is a weighty chain some people wear around their necks. When people learn to stop feeling guilty about past mistakes, they lighten their load and start living freely, enjoying the twists and turns life offers.
Life is not meant to be a burden; it is an opportunity to experience, learn and grow from mistakes as well as successes. Feeling guilty slows down the evolving life process and prevents people from learning and living spontaneously. Guilt stems from self-judgment and if not released, triggers self-loathing. Acknowledging remorse, learning life lessons and moving on to find freedom are the keys to releasing guilt.
Acknowledge Past Mistakes
Remorse for an inappropriate action is understandable and healthy if it is a temporary state of regret which leads to important life lessons. People discover how their actions have consequences so they behave differently in the future. This allows them to release guilt and live freely.
The first step is to acknowledge past mistakes by being honest about what happened. Some people feel guilty when they are not responsible for what occurred. They feel over responsible for others and think they should have done something to help, when in reality each person is responsible for their own life path. This higher awareness helps people to stop feeling guilty.
If a person realizes that they did in fact do something hurtful, admitting this from a place of neutrality and compassion takes the charge off the guilt. What happened is done and is now a part of the past. It's time to look for a deeper understanding of why it occurred so it doesn't happen again.
Look for Life Lessons
Most people are doing the best they can and don't intentionally want to hurt anyone.
Mistakes happen for a reason; they allow people to learn, heal and grow. Exploring why they behaved in an inappropriate way helps a person to understand and have compassion for their behaviors. From this place they can learn important life lessons.
What triggered the inappropriate behavior? Was it an unhealed wound that surfaced, or perhaps an unmet need screaming for attention? Some people over react under stressful conditions or act defensively or aggressively as a way to self-protect. Understanding brings compassion. This helps to release guilt so life lessons can be explored.
Imagine this incident happened for a higher purpose – what is the purpose? What benefits came out of it? What opportunities arose? What growth occurred? What was learned?
Reframing past mistakes by looking for the bigger purpose, lessons and growth, makes feeling guilty completely unnecessary.
How to Release Guilt when it's Stuck
If you've acknowledged the mistake and learned from it, but still feel guilty, the following four step process might be helpful.
- Feel the guilt in your body and remember it is just a feeling, a vibration of energy. Notice where it is in your body – is it solid, fluid or airy? Does it have a shape, color or texture?
- Communicate with the guilt. Ask it why it is there. What is the benefit or payoff for it being there? What are the consequences – what does it cost you?
- Explore any limiting messages or false beliefs that keep it stuck such as "you deserve to feel guilty," or "letting guilt go will mean you'll do it again." Recognize the lies and let them go.
- Release guilt out of your body by using whatever creative visual tools work – imagine vacuuming it out, grab hold of it and place it on the ground, breath it out, throw it into a burning fire, release it down into the earth.
Once the guilt starts to release, fill up with love, laughter and joy. Find ways to stay positive every day. Set an intention to stop feeling guilty from here onward and start living freely.
You might also benefit from reading, Heal Yourself with Forgiveness and Getting Past Mistakes and Failure.
Gini Grey - Gini Grey is the author of the book From Chaos to Calm, the CD Create What You Want, and audio courses on Spiritual Energy Awareness.
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