What do you think of this? There are five main types of guilt.
1)Do something hurtful.
2)Given to you
3)Should/shouldn’t
4)Defense against helplessness
5)Survivor
And apparently the only one that's of any use is number one. Guilt that keeps you from repeatedly hurting someone, even yourself, is a good thing. The funny thing is that out of the five I believe it is the one I'm least "guilty" of.
The other four are waging a battle within me to see which can be the most prevalent. Numbers 2, 3, and 4 are primarily child related with maybe a few other odds and ends thrown in, and the other one is cancer related.
Here's the seeming paradox! If feeling guilty (2,3,4,5) is hurting someone (namely me) then I should just use feeling guilty (1) to stop hurting myself. That almost makes sense.
What do you do to alleviate your guilt? Or do you even experience it, and if not, what's your secret?
Today was a one workout day as I skipped my swim. I know I "shouldn't" have but I thought it might "hurt" so I let it slide....actually no.... I don't really feel guilty about it at all.
(10.4 km run, 50 mins)
"How blunt are all the arrows of thy quiver in comparison with those of guilt."---Robert Blair
"If all the world hated you, and believed you wicked, while your own conscience approved you, and absolved you from guilt, you would not be without friends."---Charlotte Bronte
Love
Peter
Positive reinforcement, meditation, doing something for someone else with no strings attached, and brutal but compassionate honesty are all tools that I use. It seems to me that if you wanted to, you could research this and find some other solutions yourself, just like you obviously did for this post? Thanks for making me think about it regardless.
ReplyDeleteLove Old John
I use self talk, reality checks and try to remind myself that whatever I have done, it was the best I could do at the time.
ReplyDeleteLove ya! elly