Choosing Grace Over Guilt

The past few weeks, this phrase has been on repeat:

“Grace over guilt.”

March was a trying month on the wellness front. Right before my last round of chemo, I caught a cold. The day of chemo, I seemed to be on the road to recovery, but then I pushed my body too hard during a weekend out of town. Without the proper recovery my body needed, I ended up being sick for days on end (nearly every day of March in fact).

A cold may seem minor, but, with a weakened immune system, this one got the best of me. Day after day, I was barely able to do anything. Even loaded up with medicine, my body struggled to recover. As I likely ended up in this situation because I pushed myself too hard, I knew I needed to listen to my body. So I rested.

All my rhythms, routines, and to-do lists fell to the wayside. On more than one occasion, I became highly frustrated with my body’s lack of ability to heal. I was so discouraged, especially when my effort to rest wasn’t resulting in better health. I would start to feel better one day, only to be knocked back down the following day. But this mantra kept playing in my head: grace over guilt.

A daily reminder to choose grace related to all the things I wasn’t doing that I felt like I should be. A choice that is rarely easy, but one I’m learning is so important. A few inspirational women I follow online have been sharing this message for years, and, thankfully, I’m finally starting to get it.

While I didn’t feel like I was accomplishing much day-to-day, when I look back, the necessary stuff still happened – often through the help of others, which I gratefully accepted.

I didn’t come close to hitting all of my goals for the month, but I’m choosing to give myself grace instead of guilt. I made a different kind of progress this month: I said yes to the most important thing, my health and wellness. The rest can wait.

In case you needed the reminder, I hope you allow yourself to feel grace instead of guilt in whatever circumstances you are facing today.

For inspiration on choosing grace over guilt, these are some of the women I follow:

Lara Casey, CEO of Cultivate What Matters

Emily Ley, Founder of Simplified

Robin Long, The Balanced Life