Ayurveda teaches us about the profound concept of integrity and compassion to ourselves, our family, the world and the universe. One of the greatest destroyers of integrity the the way in which we refuse to look at ourselves at the deepest level - when we know that what we are doing is wrong. The pain of betrayal hurts us profoundly and although being betrayed by another is painful it is the betrayal to ourselves, which causes us the greatest harm. The pain of betrayal not only damages us physically causing all types of disease on the body, much more than physical symptoms it causes us to feel some of the most painful emotions possible often ones that are too painful for us to recognise. But feel them we do. When we betray ourselves it begins a cycle of continuing damage that accumulates over years. Although betraying ourselves becomes easier as time goes on like any dishonesty does the damage to ourselves only increases.

There are large acts of betrayal which are often multiplied because not only do we betray ourselves but are also betraying others. Being unfaithful in a relationship is one of the most common and blind acts of betrayal. It is usual for people who are unfaithful to say that they didn't feel any sense of remorse at the time of the betrayal and it isn't until much later that the feelings arise. This is because our damaging ego at the time of the unfaithful act works incredibly hard to close our feelings down, our true feelings from our hearts, and it encourages us to feel from our bodies and minds. Our hearts are completely closed when we are in any type of betrayal large or small.

If our hearts were open to any degree we would be unable to betray ourselves and others. In these large acts of betrayal it is essential for the ego to take complete control, cutting us off from our true emotions, which know what is happening. Closed from our hearts we will betray. Later when our ego has lost its grip, often when we are tired or someone is kind or generous to us, or we see something beautiful, hear something that moves us, its is then that our heart opens slightly and we get a glimpse of our act of betrayal.

Often as quickly as we see it and feel it, we also close it up again. Our feelings of betrayal in this instance is likely to be guilt and it becomes trapped inside us, quickly feelings are powerful, we all know this, this is the very reason we chose not to experience and feel them. We know they are powerful, we know they hurt us and ironically it seems, we chose not to open ourselves, express our guilt, own up to betrayal, even to ourselves, it is then that we damage our bodies and our minds truly destructive act of self betrayal. Rather then face these feelings of guilt, we will try to dilute them by giving ourselves reasons for our betrayal. Often these reasons come from outside ourselves, 'he didn't care about me', 'she never loved me', 'he's boring', 'she got fat' and when these reasons have been fully explored in our minds we can relax for a while as our guilt subsides. What we forget is that this is a double act of betrayal not only to the other partner but also to ourselves. Betrayal to ourselves being the greater of the two. Regardless of all the varied reason we chose to tell ourselves why we did it, the way we feel about ourselves is a direct link as to how we betray ourselves.

Betrayal is a measure of a closed heart, because betrayal is cold, hard and unforgiving as is a closed heart. When we open our hearts even a little we can see the pain that we have inflicted on ourselves and we feel our sadness, unreliability and have the ability to start to forgive ourselves