Our jurisdiction is the toughest

 

I am not talking about the jurisdiction of my country, but our personal jurisdiction. I am sure you are familiar with the fact that feelings of guilt can have fatal consequences for our health, relationships, finances and other areas of life. Do you know why? The answer is actually very simple. When someone breaks a law, he's guilty and will therefore be prosecuted. In other words, being sentenced precedes being punished. This system is also deeply ingrained in our personal lives, because we abide to certain personal and societal rules. If we feel that we broke any of these rules, we sentence and ultimately punish ourselves. The problem is that our own sentences are hardly ever ethical. Instead, we condemn ourselves in ways that even shock politicians.

Here's an example from my own life. Six years ago, I had the chance to spend five months training in Florida to prepare for the upcoming competition season. My main sponsor was my dad. During my stay, it didn't cross my mind once that I was spending my dad's money. But as I realized later, it triggered a strong feeling of guilt. Only recently, I've become aware that this feeling had been strongly influencing my life to this very day, solely because I found myself guilty and (unconsciously) kept accusing myself of breaking some personal rule/law. For more than six years I kept myself in a self-imposed prison by turning things around: I borrowed some money from my dad which I had to repay.

Yes, yes, I know, some may call this karma, which might be the case. But my karma wasn't triggered by my living and training in Florida for five months using my dad's money, but was the immediate consequence of my own (subconscious) feeling of guilt. My dad had never felt that I had carelessly used his credit card nor did he ever criticize or accuse me. It was the works of my own jurisdiction.

The only question that remains is: Is six years of being imprisoned in a self-imposed prison an ethical sentence in this case? NO, of course not. That was the final conclusion I reached and I decided to release myself to freedom.

The reason, why I'm sharing this very personal example with you is to show you that we all play the role of very unreasonable judges in our own lives.

And now it's your turn:

Ask yourself in what ways you may find yourself guilty and don't let your (ego) mind mislead you (if there wasn't any guilt involved, you'd live happily ever after). Think back to a situation, relationship or anything that you may have said or done (as I have illustrated in my example, it doesn't have to be anything serious, because we are masters at prosecuting ourselves even if we're innocent).

Once you've uncovered a sentence, it's time to look at the corresponding punishment. How did you punish yourself? Stay with me, because you know all the answers. After all, you are the judge and executioner!
Is this sentence reasonable? I am sure it isn't. Then finally set yourself free!