Guilt – no one can avoid it and most are hung by its shackles for the majority of their lives. I have struggled for years to release myself from this unbearable burden. I barricaded myself in a mental prison in which I repeatedly rehashed everything I had ever done wrong. This caused my vibration to drop immensely and almost completely blocked my creative powers.
I know many of you have similar relationships with guilt. We may ask ourselves then, why do we feel guilt in the first place? Can’t we just set this bugger up on a tee and smash it out of view forever?
What is Guilt and Why Do We Need It?
Guilt, in fact, does serve a constructive purpose. However, before we get to that we must define the word itself. I quite enjoy this definition I found on medium. com, which states that:
Guilt is defined as a deep feeling of remorse for an act which may or may not have occurred in the past. Therefore, guilt becomes a past experience which is renewed in the present moment.
Guilt is an emotion that helps us stay centred on the gameboard of life. When we behave out of spite, revenge, greed, or malevolence, guilt fills us with a feeling of great remorse to remind us of our wrongdoings. We can use this constructive emergence of guilt to make amends with those we have hurt and to move closer towards peace and happiness.
If you blurt out words before thinking and hurt someone’s feelings in the process, allow the guilt you feel to guide you towards reparation. Apologize to the person and to yourself as well. After all, we are human, and to be human is to make mistakes. The only true mistakes are the ones we don’t learn from and thus keep repeating. When you make an error, apologize and remind yourself that you are human. Remember how awful it feels to hurt others and set an intention to not make that choice again.
The Devil Never Sleeps
The sticky business comes in ridding ourselves of destructive guilt. This is the burden that plagues us for months, years, even decades after we have already rectified our wrongdoings. This type of guilt can make us feel wretched for something that wasn’t even our fault, or worse, for something that never even happened! This is destructive emotion at its worst. As wizards, if we are to perform at our highest levels of sorcery, we must find a way to release it.
Real-Life Prisons Built out of Imaginary Scenarios
To give you an example of the power of destructive guilt, I will share a story from my personal life.
Four years ago, my family and I took a trip to Mexico. One day, we decided to tour some underwater caves known as cenotes. We spent hours diving deep underwater where we marveled at the beautiful fish and rock formations. On one dive down into one of the larger cenotes, I noticed a beam of light coming from further down the cave. I pointed this out to my sister and told her there must be an opening on the other side if light was able to get through.
I said we should try to swim through and check it out. The underwater distance we had to cover was well over sixty feet, but since we are both strong swimmers, I was not worried. We knew that if either of us ran out of air we could just turn around and swim back.
So we counted to three, took a deep breath, and dove under the water. After five seconds into the swim my lungs started to tighten from the drop in water temperature, so I turned around and swam back. My sister, however, kept going forward. When I reached the surface I caught my breath and went right back under to spot Cori… except I couldn’t. I kept submerging myself, yet after five minutes I still could not see her. I started to panic.
My brother swam over and asked what was going on. I told him that Cori had swam towards the pocket of light underwater and I couldn’t see her. Together we watched for her underwater, but nothing. Finally, just as my brother started shouting her name, we spotted Cori swimming back.
After she surfaced and caught her breath, my sister explained that there was an air pocket on the other side, but it was very small. When she had noticed that I hadn’t made it through, she became nervous and her heart rate rose. She had to remind herself that if she had enough air to make it there, she would have enough to make it back. Eventually she was able to calm herself down, slow her breathing, and swim back.
I just remember saying, “I am so sorry. Never again. I am so sorry. Never again.” The whole ordeal was over and done in less than ten minutes, yet for me it was an eternity in which the worst images imaginable flashed across my mind. I was unable to shake the thought of, “What if…” What if she hadn’t made it back? What if she had panicked halfway and was unable to come up for air, becoming trapped under the ceiling of the cenote? What if she had drowned while we, her family, had stood mere feet away, blind to her struggle. And all because I told her we should swim through.
The belief that I had almost killed my sister plagued my mind for years after that incident. I was finally able to share the story with my cousin a couple years later which helped release some of the guilt. But it wasn’t until very recently that I was able to completely free myself from that prison.
The Magic is in the Moment
Through my consultations with sacred plant teachers I have begun to realize that guilt, like everything else in life, is a choice.
As you know from reading my previous posts, the opportunity to manifest anything resides solely in this moment. It cannot be found in the future. It cannot be recovered from the past. The power to create is right here, right now. When we marry ourselves to our past mistakes, we destroy our ability to create new circumstances in the present moment. We perpetuate more guilt and a myriad of other negative emotions into our experience, for guilt begets pain begets suffering begets hopelessness. This is not how we are meant to live. Therefore, one of the biggest keys to unlocking our Almighty Power as Sorcerers, is to release ourselves from the prison of the past.
Learning to Classify & Release Guilt
The insights I have gained from my work with plant teachers have allowed me to identify the following practices for classifying and releasing guilt:
First, we must remember that guilt serves two purposes. On one shoulder, we have the constructive angel of guilt, whose job is to keep us centered on the path of love and truth. On the other shoulder sits the destructive devil of guilt, whose mission is to pin us to the past where we lose our creative power and become prisoners of perpetual burden.
To assess whether the guilt you feel is constructive or destructive, ask yourself the following question: Can I do something that will make me feel better about this situation?
If the answer is yes, use your Intuition to guide you towards the appropriate course of action. Apologize for something you said, fix something you broke, return something you stole, or listen instead of talking over someone. These are all possible actions you can take that will pacify the feeling of constructive guilt. In addition to making amends, repeat the following affirmation to yourself whenever you stare into the face of constructive guilt:
“Thank you guilt, for helping me stay centered on the path of Light and Truth. I understand that you are here to show me where I have strayed from my Higher Purpose, and I welcome and appreciate your guidance in my life.”
Banishing Destructive Guilt
If your answer to the above question was no, the type of guilt you are most likely experiencing is destructive. This is the type of guilt we most often feel as humans.
If you have already apologized for a situation and you feel that someone (including yourself) is still trying to make you feel guilty about it, ask yourself these questions:
“Why am I drawing this energy to me? What do I need to release? What do I need to strengthen?”
Maybe you need to release your fear of unworthiness or the belief that others can easily dominate you.
Maybe you need to strengthen your courage and confront your assumptions that are causing destructive guilt.
If your guilt is destructive, meaning there is no course of action you can take to amend the situation, work on cultivating the following tools to help you transcend the negative emotion.
1. Know you are worthy. It is imperative to allow yourself to want what you want in life. So frequently we feel the greatest guilt over our personal desires. We cannot justify wanting to live in a healthier body or being with a more appreciative partner, because we do not believe we are worthy of such things. The first step in releasing destructive guilt is to overcome the false belief that you are not worthy. If you are anything, my darling, you are worthy. Were you not, you would not be here.
2. Affirm your worth. I do not mean solely by repeating positive affirmations, though that is a great place to start, especially if your self-worth is considerably low. When I say affirm your worth, I mean you need to show yourself how worthy you are through every action you take. Honour and respect your bodily temple. Nourish yourself with high-vibrational food. Move and stretch your body in a variety of ways. Quit smoking and reduce your alcohol consumption. Get lots of deep rest and drink an abundance of clean, purified water. Cherish yourself as you would a newborn child, and your sense of self-worth will greatly improve.
3. Stop comparing yourself to others. Much of the destructive guilt we experience results from comparing ourselves and our situations to others. We feel guilty to want a bigger house or a better car when we think about the person who can’t afford a single bedroom apartment. Remember that everyone is living their own truth, and when you tell yourself that you are worthy of your desires, you allow others to give rise to their own desires. Focus only on your own truth and no one else’s.
4. Remember that you are an Almighty Sorcerer and your magic can only be summoned in the present moment. If you allow guilt to hold you in the past, you lose all your power to create a better reality for yourself.
5. Stop assuming. So much of the conflict that materializes in our lives results from our untamed minds assuming what others are thinking. We create the most unnecessary guilt of all when we assume how others are going to respond to something we say. Assume nothing while speaking with the truth in tact and tact in your truth and you will stay on-course of your Higher Purpose.
6. Remember that anyone who tries to make you feel guilty is struggling with their own burden of guilt. This presents an opportunity for you to have an open, honest conversation with them about what is really going on below the surface. Remember that you have drawn this experience to you, consciously or not, to allow you to transcend destructive guilt once and for all.
Calling All Creators
To share my truth is to tell you that this five-letter-word has presented the biggest struggle in my life so far. As a teenager, I had unrealistic expectations of myself, which created a slew of situations where I became overwhelmed by destructive guilt. I carried the weight of that burden for many years, much to my creative detriment.
My intention is that you can use these insights to help you differentiate between the guilt that exists to serve you and the guilt that exists to destroy your powers. I pray that you are able to release yourselves from the unbearable burden that chains you to the past so you can be free to create an unbounded existence right now.
My darlings, the past has come and gone, the future will never arrive. Our only opportunity to live, create, and experience ineffable bliss resides solely in this moment. I invite you to check your coat of guilt at the door and join me in this ever-present party. Because if anyone deserves to kick back and relax, it’s you.
Until next time,
All my love,
Always and forever,
Dallas
In case you missed it, you can read my last post here: Rushing Roulette: Why We Need To Hit The Brakes To Reclaim Our Lives