We give ourselves as much love, happiness, peace, prosperity and good health as our guilt will allow. What does this really mean? Another way to look at it is to the degree we feel guilty (current or suppressed) is the degree to which we block or disallow all the good to come into our lives. Unexpressed guilt keeps us stuck in our lives and stops us from receiving love, happiness, prosperity and good health.

We have a saying in personal growth that goes, the way out, is the way through. The way out of a negative situation is the way through the negative situation till you get to the other side. The other side where peace, love and understanding reside.

We need to feel AND release our guilt. How do we do that? Baby steps. Just take baby steps.

First baby step is to acknowledge that one is feeling guilty in the first place.

The next baby step is to write down on a piece of paper, everything one feels guilty about, and I mean everything. Include anything that is current and especially anything that is in the past. Why the past? We may have suppressed guilt over past situations that we thought were resolved but because we still feel guilt, obviously they were not resolved, at least from an emotional viewpoint.

Once you have written everything down and have mined the depths of your guilt, write FORGIVEN across the page and burn the paper. Your higher self, the opposite of your ego mind (that negative nattering voice inside your head), doesn’t believe in your guilt and neither should you.

The next baby step and maybe the most challenging one, is to feel and release the guilt. How do we do that? In the quiet of your bedroom, with the door locked, cell phone turned off and no possibility of distractions, sit on your bed or in a chair, with eyes closed. Say to yourself quietly or out loud, “something I feel guilty about is”, then name that thing.

Keep going with this exercise. Pay close and particular attention to how you are feeling. If sadness comes up, give yourself permission to be sad. If hurt and anger come up just give yourself permission to feel those feelings. Whatever the feeling give yourself permission to feel. How do we do that? Just say, my feelings are important or I now give myself permission to feel all my feelings.

If you feel like crying, cry. If you are angry, shout out I’m angry. If you feel hurt or just sad, feel those feelings. If you have a lot of suppressed guilt, you may also have a lot of unexpressed feelings associated with the guilt. Please be gentle with yourself. You don’t have to get it all out at one sitting. Be patient with yourself. If you feel overwhelmed with this process, stop and take a break. Go at it on another day.

If at any time you feel like a weight has been lifted off your soul, just know, you are feeling AND releasing guilt.

The last baby step to take is to do one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful self esteem affirmation I know: I (your first name) completely forgive myself.

Write this affirmation 70 times a day, for 7 consecutive days. If there are others in your life that you need to forgive, do the affirmation for them after you do it for yourself.

I remember doing this affirmation around my Dad – I Dave completely forgive my Dad. When I finished I literally felt lighter in my body. My Dad had passed away long before I did the affirmation. However, I felt more love and peace for him.

Acknowledge, feel and release your guilt. By doing this you have just unblocked all the good that has been waiting for you. Expect miracles. They will surely come!

Author's Bio: 

Hi, my name is Dave Abbott. I have done 15 years personal growth work to heal my past, raise my self esteem and to forgive myself, again! I have just started to do the forgiveness affirmation again. There are always layers to us, like layers of an onion.

I am committed to supporting you in knowing yourself and to doing what you love to do!