Keep on reading below to see how you can effectively deal with guilt and feel better about yourself. And, who knows, you might even realize that you’re better than you thought!
What Is Guilt?
Guilt is defined as a feeling of remorse or culpability for one’s feelings, words, or behavior.
It can occur when you believe you have hurt somebody, made a mistake, or violated your subjective ethical code of behavior.
In certain contexts, guilt can be a positive feeling that can benefit you by learning from your errors.
However, you may feel guilty for cases where you think you were at fault, or even for events that you were definitely not the one to blame.
People with bad intentions can also use guilt-inducing techniques to manipulate other people into doing stuff they would rather avoid doing.
There are useful methods for dealing with and overcoming feelings of guilt, whether it’s misdirected guilt, relevant guilt, or guilt caused by other people — even if you continued to carry it for a long time.
How To Deal With Guilt
Once you’ve determined why you’re feeling guilty, the next phase is to determine how to deal with it. Consider implementing some of the following tactics.
Admit To Its Existence
Guilt may occasionally be buried beneath other symptoms such as stress or insomnia. This could make determining what is truly troubling you difficult.
Recognizing whether guilt is the underlying cause of these difficulties can certainly assist you with clarifying the situation and determining the next actions you should take.
Get Rid Of The Negative Self-Talk
Although guilt can motivate you to take the right steps, it could also lead you to equate your behavior to your personality.
This can result in an erroneous self-evaluation and negative self-talk, with you ending up thinking and telling yourself that you are a bad person when you’re not.
Keep in mind that, while your behavior might very well have not been perfect, it does not define your character.
Determine Whether There Is A Reason Why You’re Feeling Guilty
Guilt is sometimes unjustified because the individual involved has moved on or has decided to forgive you a long time ago.
Consider contacting the person to ask how he or she honestly feels. You may be surprised to learn that you have been feeling guilty for way too long and for no apparent reason.
Remind Yourself Of The Good Things You’ve Done
When you’re feeling bad, it can be difficult to think of all of the good things you’ve done. Keep a record of every act of kindness you have bestowed on others.
You will probably discover that the number of favorable deeds far outnumber any apparent wrongdoings.
Understand That It Is Normal To Have Needs
Guilt can sometimes come from concerns you have about being selfish with your time, cash, and energy.
Nevertheless, it’s important to keep in mind that none of us can do everything and please everyone all of the time.
You have desires as well, and they are just as legitimate as those other people have.
Set Ground Rules
Unsettled boundaries can lead to feelings of guilt.
For instance, you could feel bad when attempting to convey your needs to other people, or you could feel terrible when failing to carry out what other people request of you.
Setting boundaries and rules entail stating your expectations clearly. It specifies which behaviors you will tolerate from other people and which behaviors others can hope to get from you.
Setting such limits can help you avoid feeling guilty when interacting with other people.
Apologize
Quite often the appearance of guilt indicates that you should apologize for your behavior — a sort of intuitive hint. Once you respond to your intuition and act on it, that feeling of guilt will most probably disappear.
“Sorry seems to be the hardest word,” or not.
In the unfortunate case scenario where someone died, and you can no longer say sorry to them for treating them wrong, keeping a journal or composing a letter to express your feelings can be a great way to purge yourself of guilt.
Know Your Power
It may be helpful to look into the origins of your guilt and evaluate which parts of it you can control.
Say that you feel fully accountable for an incident that occurred years back. It may be more beneficial at this moment in time to concentrate on what you could do right now to improve the situation.
If no other method works, remember that holding on to guilt is unlikely to result in the desired outcome.
Do your best to be compassionate with yourself and finally realize that certain things cannot be changed, and that is perfectly fine!
Confront Your Mental Health Issues
If mental health issues or past trauma are contributing to your feelings of guilt, you should speak with a licensed therapist or psychologist.
They can begin by analyzing areas in which you might require assistance and offer solutions for dealing with your feelings of guilt.
Understand That No One’s Perfect
Holding yourself to a high standard and letting even minor infractions make you feel guilty means that you should daily remind yourself that no one is flawless and that everyone makes mistakes.
Making mistakes does not imply that you are a nasty person. It merely means that you, like the rest of us, are evolving and learning as you progress in this exciting journey of our lives.
The Bottom Line
To let go of guilt, you might very well need to do some self-reflection to figure out where the guilt is coming from and the reasons why you feel this way.
It also involves deciding whether you’re feeling unjustified guilt, toxic guilt, or genuine remorse for a mistake of yours.
However, you should always remember that you’re only human and that none of us is perfect, and we shouldn’t try to be.
Understand your emotions, make things right when you can and should do so, and, please, be kind to yourself!
Hi, we are Ben Easter and Paige Stephens-Easter, and we have been married for 10 years. Together, we have immersed ourselves in the world of personal development, with our full-time business - Lucid Shift Coaching.
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