21: The Problem with Shame

In order to change how you feel in your life you have to change the way you think about the steps along the way. You must change the way you think about your experiences. How you think about your journey. Part of your journey is noticing that other people are on a journey too. When you cross paths with a given person you might have thoughts or opinions about what that person is saying or doing. It is at this point that a lot of us get sucked into a pitfall of Shame.  Our brains naturally seem to think ahead and determine a worse case scenario and decide that it is probable and if it does happen the experience will be unbearable.  In a nutshell, our brain jumps to a conclusion and trys to project us from any discomfort. We then begin to experience  Shame... in advance of the experience.  Many times we start off feeling confident and comfortable in our decisions but as we begin to think about how we might be viewed by others; we begin to feel Shame. We think about how others might view us.  Shame holds us back from progress and enjoying life. Shame causes us to enter a holding pattern with decisions and goals. We simply stop moving forward.