Letting Go Of Guilt`

 

I want to share a story with you, its a story my psychologist shared with me about hanging onto guilt. He actually tells a lot of stories and if I can remember them I will share them here with you. This one in particular was pretty simple, very explanatory...straight to the point and I like that. One thing I have to say about this doctor and our dealings around my PTSD and guilt is his ability to make things really uncomplicated. Here's just an example of that....

A very long time ago, 2 monks were walking through a forest area. There were many trees, bodies of water, hills and valley's and mountains in the distance. The monks eventually came too a river that was deep and had a powerful flowing current. As the men reached the river a young lady that was travelling through the forest came too them. She asked for their help to cross the river. She was scantly dressed, kind of revealing. One of the monks stepped up and offered to help her without hesitation. He said "sure I can help you" and he had her go on his shoulders and he kindly crossed through the river with her safely on his shoulders. When he got to the other side, he set her down and she thanked him. Immediately she went about her way all on her own. When the two monks eventually reached their destination, about 3 days later the one monk turned to the other and said "you know, you really shouldn't have helped that lady cross the river", "it was not a smart thing to do". "Why is that?" asked the helpful monk. "Well because she was not dressed appropriately, she was showing too much of her skin". "That is against our belief ,morals, and our way of life".
The Monk responded with "after I took her across the river, I set her down and let her go", "you however have seemed to continue to carry her with you the past 3 days"

To you, this might just be a silly story I have shared. You might not understand the significance or meaning behind it. But let me tell you, It certainly spoke volumes to me.
After he finished this little story I sat there, staring at him thinking "my god, how can something so challenging in my life be so simple to fix?' Let it go....don't carry it with me anymore. The guilt, set it down and move on. Sounds easy right?
It can be easy I suppose because technically its a choice, I work hard at this choice every single day.
I really do understand the importance of once the situation is over, let it go. Like the man who crossed the river with the lady on his shoulders, he let her down and moved forward not even thinking twice about it. However the other guy for the three days that followed continued to carry with him the thoughts of that scantly dressed girl. So which one was hurting more? The one carried her, or the one who thought about it for three days.

I do not really believe its easy to just let guilt go..but when I put it in perspective it really does make sense to me. Why carry with me the events of that day, who is it helping? Its actually taking away my quality of life, and probably effecting my family as well.
Most people live with a one form of guilt, I get that. We all make mistakes, everyone has something about themselves that they are upset about. If you my friend, find yourself reading this post and you can honestly relate. Please let whatever it is holding you back go. Give yourself the permission to forgive, the only one you are hurting is you~
Well my lovelies, I hope you are all doing well. Until tomorrow good night and god bless~