Guilt

GUILT. I really think this is something that so many of us struggle with on one level or another.  We mess up. We feel guilty. We say something we maybe should’ve kept to ourselves. We feel guilty. We binge on junk food. We feel guilty. We work late. We feel guilty. We don’t honor a commitment. We feel guilty. We say no. We feel guilty. We say yes. We feel guilty. You get my drift. Sometimes, it doesn’t seem to matter what we do…we feel guilty. So many of us go back and forth with these feelings of guilt and shame for actions and choices we make throughout the day. We make one poor choice and then punish ourselves or think about it for the rest of the day. The danger here is that instead of making the poor choice, addressing it, forgiving ourselves, and moving on…we allow that one poor choice to affect the next 200 choices. Our crappy choice on Friday night leads to guilt which leads to a screw it, I’ll start over Monday attitude. We must be willing to acknowledge our mistakes without making excuses. We must have grace for ourselves. We must be willing to get our eraser out and wipe our slate clean. I love this quote from Jen Sincero, and I think it’s one we all can use as a reminder when we start feeling guilty. She says, “You aren’t a better person for feeling guilty or bad about yourself, just a sadder one.” I challenge you to keep that eraser handy this week. Let’s just erase instead of weighing ourselves down with guilt.