Meditation of the Week – Forgiving Yourself – Releasing Guilt

I have had a request from a number of participants in my yoga class for copies of the meditations which I read at the end of each class.  I thought that the easiest way to do this would be to post it on this blog each Monday afternoon.  Here is the first one from my classes last week.  Currently all of my meditations are from a book called Daily Om by Madisyn Taylor http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/display/product.cgi?pid=511.

                                                     Forgiving Yourself – Releasing Guilt

  We all know what it is like to feel guilty about something, and many of us struggle with this feeling all the time.  Guilt makes us feel that we are somehow unforgivable.  While this experience is common, it is detrimental to our overall well being.  Feeling guilty generally promotes a sense of powerlessness – an anguished agonizing over a past action that cannot be changed.  The problem with this is that it does not inspire us to forgive ourselves, make amends and move forward free of emotions that no longer serve us. 
  Originally, guilt referred to the fine paid for proven wrongdoing.  Once you make the payment, in time or money, for what you had done, you were free of the sentence and the guilt.  The problem with guilt as it is often experienced now is that it becomes a permanent state of mind for some people.  In this case, it is a neurotic preoccupation rather than a fair assessment of misconduct followed by a course of action that leads to reparation. 
  It is part of the human experience to make choices and hurt others.  There is no way to avoid this entirely, and wallowing in guilt will not help you or anyone else, nor will it prevent future suffering.  Understanding this is the first step toward liberating yourself from this negative emotion. 
  If you are hanging on to guilt about something, the first thing you need to do is practice compassion for yourself – you are human and you make choices.  Compassion and self forgiveness are much more effective in helping you determine a course of effective action than guilt.  You may need to offer an apology, or you might have to make some changes in yourself.  Know that with each action, you create healing for yourself and anyone you have hurt.  Finally, learn from your choices, but never beat yourself up.  Know that you are inherently good, love yourself and always do your best………..then there will be no place for guilt in your life. 

My wish for you this week is that you are able to treat yourself with the same love, compassion and understanding that you offer to others.  I have heard it said that guilt is a useless emotion.  That may be true but it is still difficult if you are experiencing guilt to sometimes just let it go.  With patient perseverance and gentle compassion we can indeed learn to let go of that emotion so that we are able to move forward in our lives happy, joyous and free.  Releasing our guilt, will allow us to experience the joy that is rightfully ours.