Feeling guilty

Some people live with guilt for weeks, months, years, even decades. When we did something we are ashamed of, we feel guilty. Shame and guilt go hand in hand.

What you need to understand is that no person on this planet is perfect. At least once in our lives, all of us have acted in a way that contravenes with our moral principles or our standards. When that happens, we feel guilty and ashamed. We surround ourself with secrecy and believe that if we ever disclose what we did to someone else, they’ll never like us again.  The fact that we did something “wrong” doesn’t mean that we are bad people and being a good person doesn’t necessarily mean that you will never do anything bad. Our actions may have been the effect of particular circumstances or a particular time in our lives.

Being honest with ourselves and learning to forgive ourselves will lead to us become aware of our good and bad qualities, of our strengths and weaknesses. It will help us to make the right choices in the future. It will get us closer to the sort of person we want to be.