In the last few years, I’ve had several experiences of injury with my body – a few with my hands, and two with my back. These injuries have helped me to see things I haven’t noticed before.
A Course in Miracles tells us there’s a relationship between our unconscious guilt and our difficulties with our bodies.
I’ve come to see how that can play out from the mental to the emotional and physical. In my Sacred Circle today we were talking about sickness being a defense against the truth and how that could actually work.
Through my recent experiences, I can see exactly how guilt affects my mind and my body. Two incidents in particular – both related to my dog, Bodhi. When she was a puppy, I had two occasions where I injured my fingers because of her running off while I had the leash in my hand.
In one instance, I threw the frisbee for her to chase, forgetting that I was lightly holding the leash in my hand. It was a very long lead and when she reached the end of the loose part it yanked me hard, injuring my finger.
Another time, I was walking Bodhi on a long leash in our big yard when she spotted a rabbit and took off on a run so fast that, before I could even think, she yanked me so hard that it injured my thumb and hand.
On both occasions I had pain and it really hurt, but it was the time that I was responsible for hurting us both, because I threw the frisbee without noticing the leash was wrapped around my finger, that I was injured. My finger is bent to this day. She ran so hard and hit the end of the lead and was yanked short – that had to have hurt her neck.
I felt responsible for hurting us both. And I’m certain that the guilt of causing us both to suffer is what made the injury so painful and slow in healing. Whereas, the incident with the rabbit which also seemed to have hurt me badly, recovered much more quickly.
I didn’t feel guilty at all.
I could give you some other similar examples in recent years and I know that this is to teach me about the effect of guilt on the body.
Sickness is a defense against the truth means that we’re defending against the truth of our innocence. I’ve had injuries or illness throughout my life where I knew it was actually meant to be an attack against someone else so they would feel guilty.
I’ve learned that none of this is wrong – it’s wrong minded. We are collectively purging old guilt, shame, regret and resentment and a lot of us are doing it through our experiences of our bodies.
We must remember, through it all, that we are not our bodies. We have bodies, but that is not what we are. Bodies are so helpful and I feel it’s very important to honor the body, but not deify or glorify the body. Let us not make false idols of the body.
Instead, let’s be grateful for all the learning bodies allow us. If this interests you, check out my 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!
CAMINO WALK in October: If you’re interested in joining me in Portugal and Spain on the Camino check out the details of our adventure and please sign up soon as we’ll sell out FAST! We’re having a Q&A zoom call on Sunday, May 21 – sign up to learn more and get your questions answered. Click here now for more info.
LATEST PODCAST EPISODE! Believe it or not – this is episode #600! The most recent episode of my podcast’s topic is Stop Withholding From God. Many spiritual students unwittingly operate at a distance from Spirit. Feeling unworthy of God’s Love, they feel they have to do everything for themselves and not go to the Holy Spirit for anything. This is addressed over and over in ACIM.
