We just never know when and how inspiration will knock on our door. But with my practice, I have learnt that it is always available to us. We just have to tune ourselves into it by quietening our monkey mind. Over the past few weeks, there was one common theme that was popping up either in form of questions from friends, or casual statements or expressions used by others in their communication with me. Which as I paid more attention to, was more of the self -talk that goes in our head – either subconsciously or otherwise. And that common theme was Guilt!
– A working mother juggling with many roles feeling guilty for not being able to pay the kind of attention she thinks that her children deserve. A homemaker, looking after her family, feeling guilty for not doing enough with her life.
– A health and fitness conscious person, working out 4-5 times a week, feeling guilty for not exercising one day where the body is screaming for rest.
– A person wanting to feel accomplished, prepares a to do list and is unable to tick off a few boxes. But ends up feeling guilty and unaccomplished for not completing it.
– Someone who is on a diet and is diligent and disciplined with their diet, but that one day decides to indulge in favourite kind of food, ends up feeling guilty for not following the healthy diet
– Someone who is traditionally not successful in the commercial sense, ends up feeling guilty for being perceived (either self or others) as incompetent or a failure.
– Someone who is aware that they are negative and know that it is counter productive to be pessimistic or negative. Yet the times they choose to feel what they are feeling, they end up feeling the guilt for not being able to practice the art of being positive or perceive themselves as falling or failing, helpless and hopeless for not being able to break the pattern.
– A 20 year old feeling guilty for what not choosing the profession the parents expected her to choose. A child being reprimanded and told, “don’t you feel guilty for doing this?”
The list was endless!! And as I contemplated deeper, I realized the list is endless. The biggest guilt which the entire human race suffers from, is from not being perfect, not being God.
So what exactly is Guilt? And why do we feel Guilty? What do we do about the guilt? These very questions forced me to dive into my own journey as well of how I had learnt to deal with the guilt of not doing the so called right things or whenever I looked back in time, I wished that I had done some of those things differently.
…..to be cont’d