Feeling guilty almost ensures that you will feel tense, probably without knowing it, and hence add to your stress load.
Guilt is one of the most common negative feelings we all have and can make us feel burdened down and perhaps even unworthy. It can drag us down emotionally. It will add to the stress you already have.
Yet guilt does nothing for anyone: just feeling guilty does not help the person or situation involved - does it?
Guilt is just another burden we carry around - unless we decide to get rid of it.
Here are a few ideas about getting rid of guilty feelings:
- Confess to yourself that what you did was wrong. Own up to your mistake(s).
- Realise that you are not perfect: you are a human being and you make mistakes - and sometimes your mistakes or bad deeds hurt someone. We all do the wrong thing at times - we're human.
- Having identified something you are not proud of, you can say to yourself: "I made a mistake then, doing whatever it was, but today, NOW, I would not do that again. I have changed for the better."
- Perhaps you can try to make amends to whoever you injured.
- Maybe that is no longer possible, if so try writing that person a letter of apology. Then tear it up.
- Maybe you can do something for the person involved: a good turn, especially if they will not know about it, that it was from you. You will feel better: you've made amends.
- Maybe you can front up and talk to the person: they may have forgotten or not even realise that you injured them (was it only in your mind?). Or maybe you can just apologise.
- If it's not possible to contact the person involved, maybe you can visualise the person being in front of you, and apologise to them. Say it out loud: verbalising your thought makes it more powerful in removing your sense of guilt.
And learn to be kind to yourself: after all, aren't YOU your best friend??
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