I believe that guilt and regret are some of the most useless emotions that are felt by human beings. We feel guilty for disappointing our parents, guilty for taking time for ourselves, guilty because we ate that extra bit of chocolate or in some cases the entire chocolate bar. Have you ever stopped to think what your life would be like had you no guilt at all? Some may say that would require zero conscious living. But would it really? How productive is guilt? In my opinion not productive at all. It doesn't encourage us to be better people, to feel better or act better, it makes us feel worse. I'm not one that lives by extremes so I guess zero guilt is not a great idea, maybe just a pinch. My guess is that this pinch of guilt has been wrongly named and is in actuality just living consciously. Conscious of ones actions and surroundings.
Then we have regret. Regrets fall under a whole other form of self abuse. Regrets that we didn't call sooner, regrets that we didn't stop fighting when we had the chance to, regrets about spending too much time watching TV and not going to the gym, regrets about not asking the cute guy for his phone number when you had the chance... My list can go on and on and on, and I am sure that you could make a list just as long.
How about our lists consist of things that we are happy about, proud about and blessed to be living? Would our outlook change? My guess is yes our outlook on life would change. We would accept where we are in life is exactly where we are supposed to be. By repeating this simple sentence to yourself its amazing how relaxed it can make you feel. All of a sudden the chaos simmers down and you can make sense of the mayhem. You are now empowered to be better, feel better, and do better for yourself and others.
For the fall I have decided to evict guilt and regret from my emotional attic and foster an easier less stressful way of living and being easy on myself. Maybe you can try the same?
