When things go wrong. You say the wrong thing. You do the wrong thing. Guilt creeps in and it feels toxic. You hate yourself. Deride yourself for your failure. But…
Emotions are not positive nor negative, even though some ‘feel’ better than others do. Emotions are gauges, thermometers taking the temperature of our lives.
Guilt is telling us to that we have committed an act against our own sense of what is right. We have not lived up to our own values, even a value we may not have realized or defined yet. We can wallow in guilt, make excuses, and blame others. That is the easy out.
Or we can listen to our internal compass, realize we have gone off course and correct ourselves: apologize, remedy the situation, learn from it and adjust our behavior for next time. Use it to define or redefine our values. Guilt is an opportunity to live more in line with whom we truly are deep down.
What do you do with your guilt?