Guilt - The Sneaky Energy Vampire
We are all familiar with the term "energy vampires". Normally, we associate the term with people who seem to suck all the energy out of a room when they arrive. They normally do this unconsciously, unless they are a character on "What We Do In the Shadows." (lol.)
Sometimes we find that certain people drain our energy and when we are in their presence we begin to feel tired or depressed. Or we may do something completely innocent, like go to the grocery store. While we are there, we may simply walk by someone who unconsiously drains our life force and we suddenly leave the store exhausted in need of a nap!
These are all completely valid experiences! However, today I want to talk a little bit about how emotions can also drain our energy and leave us feeling exhausted and how we can identify them and heal them. Specifically, I want to chat a little bit about guilt.
Guilt is one of those sneaky emotions that can hang around us completely in the shadows, sometimes for years, stealing our joy and sense of well-being.
Have you ever felt a need to do good things to make up for some perceived flaw in your character? Guilt and shame are very closely related cousins. Shame is feeling like you are deep in your soul flawed in some way. Guilt is a nagging feeling that you must have done something wrong and you can't possibly pay it back or make amends.
Many religions use guilt, fear and shame to control people's behavior or explain their philosophy. The religion I was born into taught me that I was born a sinner and needed a savior to keep me out of hell. No matter how many times I said the sinner's prayer, I never felt like it "worked." I still felt flawed, rejected and fearful of doing something that would keep me out of heaven. It could be something I did that I didn't even remember doing.
Parents also sometimes use similar methods to control their children's behavior.
If you had a parent who compared you to a sibling or other child in a non-flattering way, you probably have felt guilt or shame in some way. Some children feel guilt or shame even if the comparison is not derogatory. I try to instill in my grandchildren that they are different and unique, and each of them have gifts and abilities that are completely unique to them, and yet sometimes when I mention an admirable quality in one child, one of the other children who may not possess that quality will feel guilt and express angst at what was meant to be a compliment to another child.
Guilt is different from remorse! Remorse is feeling bad about something that you are completely aware that you have done that has caused harm in some way. Guilt is a little more sneaky, because sometimes it can stay hidden inside, and you feel guilty for something you may or may not be able to identify!
When I was a young mother, I soon had to leave the home and go back to work, trusting the care of my child to others. I am completely aware that most mothers nowadays have to do this, but I felt extreme guilt. I wanted to be the one to raise my own child. I was often gone from home from the crack of dawn to late in the evening, because I also had to commute over an hour back and forth to work. Over the course of three years I had six or seven car accidents, most of them not my fault, except one, when I fell asleep at the wheel from exhaustion.
Years later when I began to do some inner healing, I was introduced to the most amazing book, You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay, which is still my number one self-healing book, that I keep multiple copies on hand for my clients, and often recommend, even above my own book on healing! In this book, I learned that often we subconsciously create events that tend to punish us when we are feeling guilt! Car accidents, especially multiple ones of which I was not at fault were my subconscious way of punishing myself for always being away from home and not being a proper mother to my child.
As the years went on, I always felt the need to make amends to my daughter for all of my mistakes as a mother. I always felt a sense of guilt for all of my decisions in life that affected her in what I perceived was a non-beneficial way. When I divorced her father, the guilt became even worse.
Eventually I realized that I was not helping her by shielding her from all of life's lessons.
One day, I did a ritual to release me from the guilt of all my perceived mistakes related to my daughter. I declared to the Universe that my debt was paid and I freed myself from the guilt of every perceived mistake I made as her mother. I declared that from that moment on, anytime I did something for my daughter or gave something to her or helped her in any way, it was done out of love and not out of obligation or payback for a perceived wrong. I let myself go. As my own judge and jury, I declared my debt to be paid in full.
Here is a truth. We have all done things we regret. We are human. We make mistakes.
Sometimes I find that guilt is one of those sneaky emotions that stick to our energy field like glue. Sometimes we feel guilty and we don't even know why we feel guilty!
There are several possibilities for this!
We may have been programmed as a child to feel guilty every time we did things that a normal child does, or because we did not measure up in some way in comparison to other children!
Our religion may have instilled guilt in us for doing things that are not allowed within that particular belief system.
Society or culture may have told us that something we do is unacceptable, despite knowing in our soul that we are causing no harm to said society. (Once again, this can also be shame related, guilt's close cousin.)
We may have inherited guilt from an ancestor! Yes, sometimes we inherit the unresolved or unhealed emotions of our ancestors! This one is tricky to uncover, but a skilled healer can find it and assist you in healing or resolving it.
We may have brought guilt with us into this lifetime to heal from whoever or whatever we were before we incarnated into this lifetime. Once again, a skilled healer can help you identify and heal this.
We may have actually done something regrettable!
If we are empathic, which means feeling other people's feelings, we may have acquired the guilt by being near someone else who felt guilt.
Guilt will manifest in your life in numerous ways. Guilt tells you that you need to be punished. So you may be accident prone, you may end up being accused of something you did not do, you may have trouble with the law, you may create situations that are difficult that cost you something, you may have frequent accidents, you may be the one who always get caught doing things that other people do that never seem to get caught. Guilt will show up to pay you back for what you think you deserve on a subconscious level.
So how do you get rid of guilt if you don't even really know why you feel guilty!!!???
You can do the aforementioned ritual where you release yourself from any perceived or unknown mistakes or infractions.
You can say something like this:
"I now declare that I have paid in full any debts, known or unknown, from this lifetime, any other lifetime, or anything I inherited from my ancestors. I release myself from self-judgement or judgement coming from others. I am free from now and forevermore. From now on, any acts of benevolence I do are done from a place of love, not obligation or a need to pay back a perceived wrong. I free myself from the prison of my own making. And so it is."
You can also schedule an appointment with a skilled healer to identify and release any guilt that is lodged in your body. A healer will find it in your energy body and remove it, and sometimes be able to identify its source. The healer may also be able to heal you of other non-beneficial emotions, limited beliefs, or other wounds of the soul that are lodged in your body. This will reconnect you with a sense of well-being and aid you in creating a happier and more joyful life.
You can make an appointment with me for a healing session HERE.
If you are not really sure you feel guilt, but you have some of the situations I mentioned that hint around that you may be feeling guilty, and the previously suggested prayer didn't really help, I would suggest a healing session. There may be another cause for your struggles. Emotions and beliefs get stuck in your energy field and create all kinds of problems!
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