I have been letting go of guilt. Let’s put it this way: guilt is a signal to turn in another direction... Forgiveness is freedom and forgiving ourselves dissolves the guilt. Guilt only kept me focused in the past... kept me punishing myself mentally and the unforgiveness kept fueling the fire.

I realized my putting the spotlight on guilt was knowing what I did wrong. If I knew then what I know now, I would not have done that, or felt that, or thought that. It is the past and I do not need to carry it into NOW.

I no longer want to do this to myself. It is easy to forgive someone else... but having difficulty forgiving myself created my feeling less than. I had it backwards. I am #1 and I need to free myself from any critical self judgment, or self condemnation, self blame.

I am not in a court of law, playing the role of judge and jury. I am not destined for the emotional, mental prison of self torture. I simply have to understand the spiritual lessons that choosing guilt will teach me about the ego mind.

I find myself talking sense to myself. That is the greatest way to establish a loving relationship with myself and the Divine in myself. I can then see the Divine in others. Wow... this is the journey I must take... Thank You God.

~ Gemma Halpern

“If we don't forgive ourselves for our mistakes, and others for the wounds they have inflicted upon us, we end up crippled with guilt. And the soul cannot grow under a blanket of guilt, because guilt is isolating, while growth is a gradual process of reconnection to ourselves, to other people, and to a larger whole.”

-- Joan Borysenko