My dog, Bodhi, pulled the stuffing out of her favorite toy. She thoroughly enjoyed it. Notice, there is no guilt here.
Subscribe now to Podcast of Prayer for Today
.png)
One reason little children are so light and happy is that they don’t feel guilty – yet.
At least not that they know of. Many people use the threat of guilt as a motivator. Some use guilt to keep them playing small and avoid taking risks. I’ve certainly been guilty of both. Ha!
I’ve talked with many people who don’t fully enjoy their life because they feel it would be selfish and they’d feel guilty. When I was a kid, people would say to their children at dinnertime, “you better eat everything on that plate because there are children starving in China.”
Obviously, that’s ego insanity. How would my eating all my vegetables help the children in China?
Many people even feel guilty just fortaking care of themselves – as though good self-care somehow is putting themselves first, which is selfish. Selfish is bad and wrong, therefore self-care is bad and wrong.
And yet we know that Self-Love is critical to our happiness. How do we accomplish Self-Love without self-care? Many people ask me, what does “Self-Love mean?”
The guilty mind punishes again and again, withholding Love. Self punishment is a strong motivator for many people and it keeps them in a loop, like a hamster on a wheel, repeating a limited and unhappy existence. Withholding Love is a punishment.
It’s our destiny to live a joyful life and A Course in Miracles is the mind-training to help us get there!
It’s interesting how many people believe they should feel guilty for taking care of themselves.
One of the biggest challenges I see at work in many people’s minds is this belief that it’s better to give than to receive. How could that be true when there is only one? It’s insanity.
The only place to give to is Spirit and the only place to receive from is Spirit. So, how could giving be better than receiving? It’s so important and valuable and healing and nourishing to be receptive to Spirit’s guidance and in the flow of Love. Without Love we wither and die, literally!
The ego thought system is diabolically opposed to itself!
The ego thought system tells us that taking care of ourselves is selfish, which is bad and wrong. The ego believes that we’re supposed to give and give and give and give in order to get the Love, approval, attention and affection that we want and need.
When we don’t feel worthy of Love, we end up believing that we have to give and give and give in order to earn Love, thereby reinforcing the idea that we’re separate from Love.
When we don’t take good care of ourselves, when we over-give and give in order to get something back, then we’re going to feel depleted and it’s not because someone made us give more than we wanted. Over-giving to depletion is a choice that is born of unworthiness, and it’s a form of self-sabotage. It’s time for us to let it go!
Some spiritual students believe that suffering and martyrdom are somehow holy. This has been taught for thousands of years.
Suffering and martyrdom are the OPPOSITE of holy.
Suffering and martyrdom are pure ego.
It’s our responsibility to take good care of ourselves and keep our wellspring of energy, radiance and luminosity full. When we put attention on releasing the unconscious guilt – Self-care and Self-Love become natural and easy.
There are no extra points for running on empty.
No one can maintain our radiance for us – this is ours to do. If you feel guilty when we’re taking good care of yourself consider this: If you live in service to the Light, then everything you do to make sure you are a brightly shining light brings benefit to all. It’s not selfish to take good care of yourself, it’s another act of service to the Light!
Eliminating these thought patterns of punishing ourselves, and using the body to accomplish it is just part of what our Change Your Mind About Your Body Program is all about. It’s about breaking the habit of believing we’re a body, and believing that we’re bad. It’s about getting to the root cause of our suffering over our bodies.
Managing and coping with painful patterns isn’t healing and it’s not loving.
I invite you to ask yourself, “what can I do today to care for myself with kindness?”
One thing we can ALL do is give the guilt, known and unknown, recognized and unrecognized, to the Higher Holy Spirit Self for healing. Let the suffering be OVER! This is our time of Love & Freedom!
If you know you have issues around your body – you might be interested in our new program:
Starts Monday, May 29: If changing your mind about your body is of interest, check out our new program – Change Your Mind About Your Body using A Course in Miracles principles – this is a 5 month program with a long list of great ACIM teachers including Alan Cohen, Aaron Abke, Lisa Natoli, Gary Renard, Jon Mundy, Bill Free, Cindy Lora Renard, Corinne Zupko and more!
Join me for an adventure in Europe – a CAMINO WALK in October: If you’re interested in learning more about my Camino adventure and joining me in Portugal and Spain. Click here now for more info.
NEW PODCAST EPISODE! The most recent episode of my podcast’s topic is The Cost of Specialness. There are so many hidden ways that we invest in specialness and then pay the price with suffering. Let’s bring awareness and heal the causes of our pain.
