The toughest part of guilt is letting go. When was the last time you felt guilt?
You know, we all feel guilt at one time or another. Each of us has our own reasons, but the end result is the same.
Guilt is Good
This might seem like a crazy thing to say, but I’ll tell you why. What guilt tells us is that our conscience is working. Guilt is the result of an action we took that is contrary to a clean conscience.
Guilt creates hurt, this becomes a reminder of what we did wrong. In some cases the hurt is deep enough to make us change.
The Hurt The Guilt Brings On Us
Is it important to understand where these feelings come from and even as important how do we move forward?
The real key to letting go of guilt is learning how NOT to repeat actions that create guilt in the first place. If you read my about section you will get a taste of what drove me to create this site and write about different experiences concerning guilt, depression, fear and a host of other emotions.
As you know this site is called Sin No More, but it’s really about understanding how we function as human beings and dealing with the ups and downs of life.
Guilt and hurt go hand and hand if we are dealing with a conscience, and 99% of the time we are. The problem is we all are subject to short term temptations that can create a long list of problems and this is where the trouble starts.
Does Punishing Yourself Help?
Self punishment is probably one of the cruelest side effects of guilt.
If you have read other articles on this site you know that I believe in the general term called Sin. Sin is really a negative force that creates thoughts that can turn into actions. This self punishment thing can really dig in deep, it’s just like twisting a dagger in your belly to the point that it destroys you.
Letting guilt linger to long creates a slow and agonizing death, this is unless you take action, you need to seek help.
Does Counseling Help?
I always recommend church counseling because the counselors are adept to dealing with the feelings that sin creates. The important thing, whether you believe in sin or not, is to get help.
The more you can talk to someone who is feeding you positive thoughts leaves less room in your mind to cultivate negative thoughts. This method doesn’t totally solve the guilt problem, but it relives some of the pressure for a period of time.
Ultimately it will be up to you to reconcile these guilty feelings and it is definitely something you have to work at. But using a support system like counseling along the way is something you should seriously consider as an option.
For myself I used a tiny amount of counseling, but because my guilt stripped and just ripped apart my emotional being I do believe I experienced a side of life that isn’t to pretty, but does exist. This is the side we call sin, and it’s ugly, repulsive and destructive. You see guilt is like a guy that knocks you down and then puts his boot on your neck so you can’t get up. This is my conception of sin, sin is a negative weight that has every intention of holding you down and making you suffer until you tap out. Now you add your own self punishment and this becomes a big hill to climb.
Fortunately this is perception and not reality, what I mean by this is you were never out of control you gave it away. When you allow something to happen you gave the control away. It doesn’t matter if it was a temptation or repetitive action, if it created guilt it was no good, but you allowed it to happen.
You see folks, it’s easy to point the finger at someone else, it’s hard to admit fault and even harder to change it. So we play the blame game and talk about sin or as the old saying goes “The Devil Made Me Do It”, this is a lot of crap.
Once we realize this we have a chance to regain normality, we have to admit and say “were human and we made mistakes” and dealing with guilt is part of the healing process.
More Options
By now you realize you can’t just flip a switch and turn guilt off, it takes time, lets look at more things you can do to get rid of guilt.
- Admit, confess your wrong action.
- Repent – Sincerely, in your heart, change.
- Counseling – As mentioned, seek the type of counseling that understands and can guide you to the things you need.
- Truth – Sometimes because of shame, embarrassment we tend to not come clean. Lay all the cards on the table, to yourself and others you hurt.
- Change – What influenced you in the first place? Was it certain a group? A habit? Greed? Anger? Turn from the sin(s) that you allowed in your life.
- Acceptance – Hey, were human, sin runs the world and we make mistakes. Now what will you do knowing this? This is the key to letting go of guilt.
Condition of Your Spirit
If you are hurting from guilt, then you know your conscience is working.
Now a days there is a lot of buzz about social networking. The Internet has brought the world closer together with cultures and ideas. How about spiritual networking?
Do you believe your thoughts can be influenced by a spiritual source? Is it possible that what you can’t see can dictate your actions? If God has warned us since the beginning that a Sinful Spirit is at the core of destruction, if this isn’t so then tell me what is.
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