Guilt I
We say someone is guilty when they have been judged and convicted.When you feel guilty, it is because you have judged and convicted yourself. Holding on to guilt is your punishment. This is not the purpose for guilt. Guilt is an emotion, an awareness, that you are doing something that is not in your integrity. We are meant to feel it and respond to it by adjusting our behavior back to our own integrity.Guilt has been twisted to represent an external integrity and has been used by culture to mold and shape people. This is not what guilt is meant for. Rather, it is your own internal integrity check. Take guilt back so that only you are in charge of your own integrity.Once you feel guilt, the awareness that you are out of your own integrity, make the adjustment so that you are back being true to yourself, and then let the guilt go. It is only there to help you to notice yourself; you are not meant to carry it. To work through past guilt, see “Guilt II” next week.