Guilt

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My main issue to deal with in my (current) life is guilt, as I feel guilty all the time, about almost everything, even guilty being me, guilty what I made of my life, did with my life. And this is what a friend of mine shared as I asked what the purpose of guilt is:

“Wikipedia describes guilt as “a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes — accurately or not — that he or she has compromised his or her own standards of conduct or has violated a moral standard and bears significant responsibility for that violation.” The purpose of guilt is to enable us to make amends or right what we did wrong. When we wallow in guilt however, or think of ourselves as bad people, then we have moved on to toxic shame which is mostly unhealthy and unproductive.” – Anon

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I was just writing my daily post, Think and… and was thinking that at least in my life guilt seems to be one of the most destructive things as most of what I do seems to go back to feeling guilty about something. It appears to me now that it is the opposite of inspiration and kills almost everything, although of course I’m not sure if this applies to everybody. Even right now I feel guilty about some things i ‘should’ do, which kind of blocks me, yes, doing what I feel is right, although after this morning I’m not sure what’s ‘right’ as the reasons may not be the right ones.

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Yeah, guilt. For some time I had already in mind to add a page about guilt, as guilt affects me a lot, so that might also be the case for other people, probably you, if you ended up in this page.

Some time ago someone mentioned that guilt is a Christian thing, that Christianity introduced guilt to people. Guess I have to do some research on that, but my background is Christian, so that could very well be the case.

I remember from a book of Anthony Robbins that the purpose of guilt is to help us to avoid situations that create it, which is why it is such a strong negative emotion.

Anyhow, I guess nobody likes the feeling or emotion of guilt, and my own experience is that it often has a negative impact on me, that it blocks me.

Wikipedia says something like:

Guilt is a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes that he or she has compromised his or her own standards of conduct or has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that violation.

And found a nice definition on Psychology Today:

Guilt and its handmaiden, shame, can paralyze––or catalyze one into action. Appropriate guilt can function as social glue, spurring one to make reparations for wrongs. Excessive rumination about one’s failures, however, is a surefire recipe for resentment and depression.

 

See also difference between guilt and responsibility.

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