In my last post, I talked about guilt and shame. They are two emotions that we all deal with in our lives. For a bit of light reading a found an article entitled “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Guilt”. Surprisingly the author of the article was right and I didn’t know most of the things he mentioned about guilt. You can read the article yourself to get to all 10, I will just highlight a few of my favorites.
At Number 2 on the list was this gem: “We experience 5 hours a week of guilty feelings.” Think about the other things in your life that you do for 5 hours a week…better yet think of all the things you could do if you cut your “feeling guilty” time in half or a third or even a quarter.
At No. 5 there was this tidbit: “Guilt makes us reluctant to enjoy life.” Whew…that one stings, especially when we think about the source of our guilt and it validity or lack thereof. We literally limit our own personal enjoyment because of unchecked or guilt that we refuse to deal with.
At No. 10 this doozy landed: “Guilty feelings make you feel literally heavier and more belabored.” Feel like you are carrying around a few extra pounds? Feel like you are slugging and weighed down? Well it could just be the guilt you are lugging around.
So let’s make a resolution (you’re just a few days late, no one will notice) to deal with our guilt. We will no doubt all do things that we should legitimately feel guilty for doing. However, we don’t need to spend 5 hours a week feeling that way. Man (or Woman) Up and deal with that guilt. It may mean an awkward 5 minutes or 10 minutes, but that sure beats extra weight, less happiness, and 5 hours of wasted time every week.
Here’s a link to the original article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201411/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-guilt
elipagel.com 