Some think that guilt is useful because there is a judgment in the collective subconscious that says we would run amok, giving into every impulse, no matter how inappropriate, if we didn’t have “healthy guilt” (now there’s a contradiction in terms) to keep us in check. Balderdash! Were we truly healthy, our free will choices and actions would flow freely, even impulsively, yet harm none. Guilt is not a tool or an emotion, but it takes up energetic space where emotional response is supposed to be.

Moving from being guilt-ridden to being healed is a process, and in an environment where free will is encouraged, there will be mistakes along the journey to attaining balance. Using guilt to keep us in line has not served humankind, for there can be no self-acceptance of all the facets of ourselves if guilt is in charge. There is no loving light in the voice of guilt. It can sound right intellectually, but feels wrong to our emotional body. Guilt takes a kernel of truth and uses it against us with a hurtful twist or thrust to it; this unloving tone is one way to recognize its presence, especially if we are chronically swamped in guilt. We’ve lost sensitivity to be able to tell the difference between guilt and love.

Guilt divides us by turning parts of ourselves against us, separating us from Spirit and each other, triggering hopelessness and a sense of futility which leads to depression, addiction, and other chronic nasties. Guilt uses hindsight against us, saying we should have known because of XYZ, we should have done this, we were wrong not to do that. Its voice can disguise itself, often “reflected” to us from others outside us wagging subtly and overtly disapproving fingers our way. If guilt is synthesized down to its most basic message, it is saying we should be doing better than we already are. If self-acceptance is the key to healing, guilt is utter lack of self-acceptance, and in and of itself, not useful in the healing process.

Guilt’s presence, however, is a signpost that buried emotion lies hidden underneath it, and this emotion can be sleuthed out, and ideally, subsequently expressed and released. I need to notice how I really feel when guilt’s voice speaks to me, and then give into that emotional response, not just in words, but in sound and tears, in a safe space. When authentic response is given to every stimuli, as fully as possible, the space for guilt to stay or enter closes and one’s personal will becomes more and more free over time.

Conversely, the more I deny my true response to emotional triggers, the more guilt enters the space and speaks to me from outside and inside myself, and in the worst case scenario, runs my life. When guilt gets projected outward onto another person or situation, it comes out in the form of blame. If I find myself blaming another, or others blaming me, it can usually be traced back to guilt, either theirs, or mine reflected to me by them, or both. Noticing and acknowledging guilt is the responsible first step in disarmament during any personal war, and as mentioned, can then be released with the true expression of the emotions it conceals. The more we can disarm and own our sides of our personal vendettas, the more we as individuals, the microcosm of the planet itself, can disempower warmongering on the large scale.