Guilt will always try to pull you back.
There was a time in my life when I felt guilty for wanting time for myself.
Guilty for needing space.
Guilty for not dissolving entirely into the roles of mother and wife.
Being a mum and a wife wasn’t always wonderful for me—not because I didn’t love my family, but because it forced me to grow up, to change, to shed parts of myself so fast that something inside me quietly broke.
I forgot me.
I became so busy taking care of everyone else that I forgot I, too, was part of that family.
It took me years to understand a simple truth:
You cannot give what you do not have.
Not love.
Not joy.
Not presence.
When I finally came back to myself, I saw guilt for what it really was.
It was never mine.
It was a state I had accepted—imposed by society, inherited norms, and an idea of “normal” I never consciously chose, yet faithfully lived out.
Neville said we are not victims of circumstances, but of the states we occupy.
And guilt was just a state—one that kept me loyal to a version of myself I had already outgrown.
The moment I withdrew my attention from guilt, it lost its power.
The moment I chose myself, the world reorganized to reflect that choice.
I found myself again.
Different—but still me.
Stronger.
Wiser.
Grounded in my own authority.
Empowered.
And unpredictable.
Because the day I gave up guilt…
was the day I reclaimed my state of being.