Sometimes you sit down to write to impart wisdom and help others learn from what you have been through. Other times you write to learn something and share the journey. I recently heard a story that a Surgeon General once said that “We could empty out 1/3 of the hospitals if you could create a pill to deal with the feelings of guilt and shame in people’s lives.” While this quote may be entirely fabricated, the effects of guilt and shame can be severe.
My question is this, “How much of the guilt and shame we deal with is self-inflicted?” By that I mean, how much of the guilt and shame we deal with is simply because we are unwilling to deal with our actions. On the flip side of that “How much of the guilt and shame we deal with is inflicted by others or our perceptions of how others feel?”. My first inclination in this new year is to check my feelings of guilt and shame against these two questions. If it is self inflicted, how to I deal with it? Do I change behavior, belief, or some other factor? If it is inflicted by others or my perceptions of others, how do I deal with it?
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