What is one of our emotions that constantly hounds us? It is our propensity to “feel guilty”. Guilt is a begrudging sense of responsibility centred around the actions of one thing: ourselves.
You could even say it is a “backward thought” where we ruminate into our deeds of the past. Our guilty connotations create a vivid visualisation. The saddened face of our mother or father when we did not visit. Lamenting over what was or wasn’t said when our loved ones were around. We don’t need to be an artist to recreate the imagery that guilt can contrive, it is an inherent skill formed within the trauma of our minds.
According to philosopher Soren Kierkegaard the antithesis of guilt is freedom. We live in a communal world with common expectations, where it is through our spirited sense for individual freedom that life can only be balanced by our guilt.
In other words, guilt is a byproduct of when we decide to act as individuals. Through our upbringing we have also been constantly told the error of our ways by our parents, guardians and mentors. We become responsible for our faith, responsible to our partners, responsible to our boss. Even at times we may not know exactly what we are responsible for. Guilt is undeniably detrimental; it is also undeniably inevitable.
How do we treat our guilt? We simply must own it. Guilt is an unwelcome feeling that we try too hard to discard. If we decide to own our guilt, we have an opportunity to accept it as opposed to resisting against it. By owning our guilt, we can articulate exactly what we are guilty of and take it from being a “backward thought” to a “forward thought”.
We can ask what wisdom we can gain from it. It is through our freedom of choice that leads us into guilt, it is through our freedom of choice that we can also co-exist with it.
John Zavaglia MBA, ACA, is the therapist & founder of Mind Life offering services in Mental Health counselling focusing on anxiety, depression, social anxiety, grief & addiction. As an experienced Toastmaster & President of the North Sydney branch, John also provides services to treat public speaking phobia and is available for public speaking engagements. Mind Life Is an accredited mental health services provider under the guidance of the Australian Counselling Association. (ACA)
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