"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people." ••Theodore Roosevelt

 ON GUILT

Feeling guilt
is not the same as
being guilty.

Guilt is a feeling in the body,
until you identify with it,
and it attaches to the “I Am”,
and it becomes “I am guilty”.
“I am the guilty one”.

Yes, sometimes we have spoken or acted out of unconsciousness and hurt others.
Yes, sometimes we have not been as skilful or as aware or as kind as we could have been.
Sometimes we have not acted from our integrity.
Sometimes we have not lived up to our potential.

And guilt comes to remind us of our exquisite imperfection.
Not to punish us, but to remind us.
So we can learn. Grow. Make amends. Put things back into balance. Say sorry. Open our hearts. Find a deeper sense of self-love. Heal.

Other times, guilt arises as an old bodily memory.
An old sense of “I did something BAD”.
A primal dread. A sense of impending doom.
We find ourselves waiting to be punished.
To be killed, abandoned, shamed, publicly ridiculed.
To be forgotten and left to die.

It is an old trauma that longs for love!
Be aware of it when it arises!
Give it permission to live.
And know it is just a feeling, not a fact.
It is voices in the head, and sensations in the body.
It is a child’s terror.

Guilt will control you until you can give it the love it longs for.
Until you can turn towards it with curiosity.
Breathe into it. Drench it with understanding.
And empathy. Hold it like a frightened child.
In the safety of Presence.

You are not guilty,
even though you feel this guilt now.

You are the room for this guilt,
its sanctuary, its home.
Its master, not its slave.
Its loving parent, its place of rest.

We all make mistakes sometimes
But we are not mistakes, ever.

• Jeff Foster
  🧚♂💞🧚♂💞🧚♂💞