As you close your eyes,
I invite you to become aware of the sounds around you,
The sounds of your physical environment,
The sounds of this recording.
Just take a moment to become present to them and then bring your attention inward,
Noticing how you feel right now,
The state of your mind,
Your body and your emotions.
As you allow the breath to flow in and out,
Allow any tension that it's possible for you to release to soften now.
It might be physical tension,
Mental tension,
Emotional tension.
Softening now.
Releasing now.
Melting away now.
We turn our attention now to the emotion of guilt.
Notice what happens inwardly when you take your attention towards guilt.
Is it an emotion that you're familiar with?
Is it one that you see the people around you carrying?
Is it an emotion that you resist?
What is your relationship with and experience of guilt?
You may have heard it said that guilt is a wasted emotion,
But I want to reassure you that there are no wasted emotions.
You never feel anything for no reason.
Guilt,
Just like the other challenging emotions,
Always shows up to show you something.
It's there because there is something for you to look at,
Something for you to see and possibly work on to release and heal within yourself.
Guilt can be a bit of a sticky emotion,
One that tends to hang around.
And if that's the case for you,
Let's do some work now to uncover why it sticks so that you can free it to express and then easily release.
I'm going to ask you a question now and I want you to feel into your answer.
Your mind might provide a fast,
Superficial,
Blip-blip response and that's okay.
We honour the mind,
But I invite you to connect deeply into yourself and allow the answer to come up from the depths of your being.
What is the benefit of guilt?
What do you gain from keeping guilt around?
Explore that within yourself.
Allow your mind its response,
But again,
Go deep with it.
Sometimes guilt is the price that we pay for doing something that we're not sure we should be doing,
Almost like a cost to offset the action or the choice to bring us back to balance.
If you decide not to eat or drink something,
You can subconsciously choose to pay the price of guilt so that you can do it anyway.
Other times,
We keep guilt around as insurance.
We try and make ourselves feel really bad about the thing that we said or did to make sure that we don't make the same mistake again.
So we bury the guilt deep within ourselves to remind us how crappy it feels when we take that action or do that behaviour.
The thing about that though is that it seldom works.
Making someone feel bad about themselves is not the most effective way of getting the best out of them.
That's true externally in your relationship with others,
And it's also true internally in your relationship with yourself.
You're much more likely to be able to get the best from yourself when you encourage yourself towards positive behaviour than when you use guilt to try and beat yourself into submission.
I invite you to imagine the emotion of guilt standing in front of you right now.
Let it show itself in whatever form it chooses.
Notice what you see and feel.
Ask guilt if there is anything it wants you to know.
Notice that there are ways that you and guilt are stuck together.
Connected.
Intertwined.
Imagine what it would feel like to free guilt and to also free yourself from guilt.
This is not about rejecting guilt or repressing it.
And it's not even about trying to make it go away.
It's about allowing it freedom of movement so that it can flow through you.
Guilt is an emotion.
Energy in motion.
And it is when it gets stuck that it creates problems in your energy field and consequently,
Eventually in your life.
The emotion of guilt is incredibly valuable.
If you hear its message,
Work with it and then let it go.
It lets you know that something needs your attention.
That you may be behaving outside your own value system.
Or perhaps that you're taking responsibility for things that are not your responsibility and your boundaries need attention.
It might be showing you that you're limiting your potential because you're worried that the super bright,
Shiny and successful version of you will cause others to feel less than.
So you make yourself smaller.
These are all valuable things to know.
Because when you realize you're doing them,
You can choose to continue or you can choose to do it differently.
When you allow guilt to show you its message and when you do the work to clean that up,
Guilt moves through you the way all emotions are meant to.
Imagine yourself standing in front of guilt now.
Notice what you see.
What you feel.
Ask guilt if there's anything that it wants you to know.
And then listen.
Really listen.
And now ask guilt,
Is there anything that it needs from you in order for it to release?
Not something that it needs from anyone else.
Not anything that you can't control.
What does guilt need from you specifically?
Because it ultimately always comes down to something between you and it.
And once again,
Listen.
If you got a response and it feels appropriate,
Commit to giving guilt what it needs from you.
And if that's not possible right now,
I'll give you a moment to negotiate with guilt so that you find a solution that works for both of you.
So that you both feel free and yet supported by each other.
Ask guilt if it is ready to be released from the bonds that have tied you together.
That doesn't mean that guilt will not come up in the future.
It is a messenger here to show you and guide you in your personal growth and evolution.
But ask if it's possible to release the old guilt.
The old bonds.
The old restrictions.
If it's not possible right now,
Then ask what is a step that you can take to move you in that direction.
But if it is possible,
Then feel those chains,
Those connections in whatever form they presented themselves to you.
Dropping away.
Dissolving.
So that both you and guilt are free.
Reassure guilt that you understand that it never comes up for no reason.
That you know it always comes to show you something important.
And that although you aim to not repress it in the future,
Not repressing it is a process that you're still learning to do.
So you might accidentally repress it sometimes.
But ask guilt to be patient with you as you grow and evolve.
To communicate.
To get your attention.
To let you know that it's there.
And then it's up to you.
If you do find yourself repressing guilt,
The moment you notice,
You can just simply choose to turn towards it and allow it to be.
Walk through it and be open to uncovering the message that it has for you.
Be kind to yourself as you move through this process and take a moment to acknowledge guilt for what it tries to show you and how it tries to guide you towards the ultimate expression of yourself.
It is through accepting the emotions and the different parts of you that hold those emotions that you move towards wholeness,
Peace,
Ease and flow.
Thank you.
