Spiritual Exercises to Release Guilt
It is essential to forgive yourself and others to release your guilt, and decide not to allow it to stifle you and your future opportunities.
Spiritual Exercises – How to Release Feelings of Guilt
What Are Spiritual Exercises?
The spiritual exercises were born from the personal experience of the founded religious order called the Society of Jesus and Jesuit Saint Ignatius of Loyola. He was a man dedicated to seeking and growing in union with God. He kept a diary while gaining spiritual insight and deepening his spiritual experience.
While dealing with other people’s pain and experience, he discovered what “worked.” Finally, Saint Ignatius brought these prayers, meditations, reflections, and instructions together in a structure he called “spiritual exercises.”
Saint Ignatius wrote about the spiritual exercises “aim at the conquest of the self and the regulation of life itself in such a way that no decision is made under the influence of any disorderly attachment.” He wanted individuals to perform these exercises with an experienced spiritual director who would help them shape and understand what they were experiencing.
The book of spiritual exercises is a manual to be used by such a director, not by the person making the retreat.
THE STRUCTURE OF SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
Ignatius organized the spiritual exercises in four “weeks” blocks of time. These are not seven-day weeks but rather stages on a journey to spiritual freedom and sincere commitment to the service of God.
FIRST WEEK
The first week of the Exercises is a time for reflection on our lives in the light of God’s boundless love for us. The first week ends with a meditation.
SECOND WEEK
The second-week meditations and prayers teach us to follow God as his disciples. We are driven to make decisions to change our lives.
THIRD WEEK
We meditate at the Last Supper on the passion and death of Christ. We see his suffering and the gift of the Eucharist as the ultimate expression of God’s love.
FOURTH WEEK
We meditate on Jesus’ resurrection and his appearances to his disciples. We walk with the risen Christ and set out to love and concretely serve him in our lives in the world.
PRAYER IN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
The two primary forms of prayer taught in spiritual exercises are meditation and contemplation. In meditation, we use our minds. We reflect on the basic principles that guide our life. We pray for words, images, and ideas.
Contemplation is more about feeling than thinking. Contemplation often stirs emotions and ignites deep desires. In contemplation, we rely on our imagination to place ourselves in a scenario of the gospels or in some scenes proposed by Ignatius.
As busy people struggling with the daily responsibilities of work and family, we often find ourselves overwhelmed, frustrated, and unable to carry out everything we intended. However, we are doing the best we can with our best intentions, so we can start doing spiritual exercises to learn how to get rid of guilt and move on with positive changes.
Here Are Some Spiritual Exercises to Release Guilt
DO NOT “OWE” TO YOURSELF
Concentrating on what you should do or should have done prepares you to be self-critical. When you “owe” yourself, you are judging yourself. You are limiting your full potential to grow and think openly when you judge yourself. Practice discernment, and do not promise yourself things you can’t honor. When you make a promise to yourself, follow through, do not create self-disappointment; you should be able to trust yourself.
PRACTICE POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS
Since guilt can affect your physical, emotional, and spiritual health, a gentle way to remedy the effects and practice a spiritual exercise is to practice positive affirmations. Keeping your statements in the present tense helps you stay in the present moment, and using “I am” makes the statement powerful and personal.
START A DIARY
One way to release the guilt is to express your feelings in a journal and actually see your thoughts on paper. Journaling is a beautiful method of visualizing what’s on your mind and returning to it later to remember how far you have come. Another good thing is to register some of your dreams. Sometimes the imagery will give clues on how these spiritual changes and exercises affect you.
FOCUS ON QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY.
Spending time with children, for example, is difficult for busy parents. But don’t feel guilty enough to leave your activities pending just to be with them watching television. You should do a spiritual exercise on this guilt and start thinking about the quality of time when possible. Enjoy the present moments and the quality of what you are experiencing.
FORGIVE YOURSELF
It is essential to forgive yourself and others to release your guilt, and decide not to allow it to stifle you and your future opportunities. Forgiveness is not the same as accepting hurt. It is doing a spiritual exercise about taking care of yourself to move on with your life without being controlled by guilt or the person who hurt you. Mistakes are opportunities to learn and grow.
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About the Author
Cathedral of the Soul intends to undertake the challenge of creating a multidimensional healing space that is dedicated to those who seek to enrich, enlighten, and heal themselves while serving and assisting in the healing of others. Cathedral of the Soul is one of the many spiritual outreaches of Humanity Healing International, a registered 501C3 nonprofit with Church status. https://cathedralofthesoul.org and Cathedral of the Soul Facebook
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