One of the most significant battles you have to face in life is the battle happening within. Your negativity, the feeling that we don’t deserve good things born out of guilt, is only one of those you will have to deal with. When we do something wrong, a healthy conscience will make us suffer. But there are times when we feel it to the extreme. We think that we are so bad, or we’ll never change. As we continue to thrash ourselves, we find ourselves agreeing that we are unworthy, not good enough for better things to happen to us. So how do you let go of guilt? How can you heal and carry on? We will try to learn about this as we go along.
Common Reasons We May Feel Guilty
We must first look into what we commonly feel guilty about to address the issue. It can be as simple as constantly hitting snooze on your alarm each morning or as complicated as causing someone pain. There are so many reasons we can feel guilty.
1. Giving in to Your Cravings
Be it taking an extra serving of food or hitting “check out” on your favourite online shopping app, we can feel guilty about feeling that we are overindulging ourselves in things we think are making us less of the person we want to be.
You may have planned to stick to a diet plan but ended up having ice cream and slacking off on exercise. You may have promised yourself to stop buying new clothes but ended up buying something on sale. There are many things you can feel guilty about when you end up giving in to your cravings.
2. Not spending enough attention or time on our loved ones
As humans, it is natural for us to connect a bond and maintain that bond with our loved ones. When we fail to give our family and friends enough time, we end up feeling guilty about it.
3. Being Rude to Someone
Being rude intentionally or accidentally can make you feel guilty whether or not your rudeness is warranted or not.
4. Gossiping
In our day-to-day interaction with others, more often than not, we tend to talk about other people. We may give in to the excitement of sharing gossip, but when we finally come face to face with the person concerned, we end up feeling guilty about talking behind their back.
5. Not Doing Enough
Sometimes we can feel guilty about not doing enough. You should have cleaned up and not stayed in bed the whole Saturday. You should have worked harder, and you might have gotten that promotion. We feel guilty when we feel like we are not being our best selves.
6. Saying No to Other People’s Request
It’s difficult to know how to say no without feeling guilty, even if you’re not a people-pleaser. However, this inability to say no is understandable as people are designed to avoid confrontation, and no one enjoys disappointing someone.
7. Doing Something Morally Wrong
For most people with a healthy conscience, committing a crime or something morally bad like cheating, stealing can weigh so bad that they end up losing all hope of redemption.
8. Not Taking Care Or Yourself
You run around taking care of others, meeting company deadlines but even when you know you’ve reached your limits, you keep going anyways until you burn out. We know better and taking care of yourself is just as important as taking care of others. Self-directed guilt is real, and all too often, it manifests physically into guilty pleasures, i.e. reason #1 on this list, giving in to our cravings.
How to Let Go of the Guilt Through Emotional Healing
Every day individuals who carry so much guilt can walk around with a sense of inadequacy. They refer to themselves as “losers” and “no good.” They are enslaved by their wounds and resentments from the past. Despite the fact that no one else is aware of their hidden pain, the negative feelings they experience eat away at our joy and contentment in life. So it is essential to start letting go of the guilt. Here are a few ways on how:
1. Identify and talk about the things you are feeling guilty about
Talk about what’s ripping you apart inside and break free from the bonds of holding it all in. Tell a trusted therapist, mentor, or friend about your feelings. To forgive, you must first be open and vulnerable about who you are, both good and bad. Be open and honest about your mistakes and the repercussions of your actions. Make a list of the exact actions and behaviours that are causing you all that pain.
2. Recognize that you have limitations
You will make mistakes in life because you are an imperfect person. Accept it. Sometimes you will disappoint or hurt others, and you’re going to have regrets. It’s a fact of life in a world that isn’t flawless. You have limitations. You can not always be the perfect family member, friend, or employee. You will also have to accept the fact that you are not the superhuman that you sometimes expect yourself to be.
3. Make amends in the areas where you could
Evaluate how your actions have affected others and even yourself. If there is a way to make amends, then do what you can. You may not always get the forgiveness of others you have wronged, but the most important thing is to ask for forgiveness, even if it’s just to start your emotional healing process.
4. Letting go of your guilt
Remember that the hardest person to forgive is yourself. But if you have learned to do it, then you can start letting go. Don’t be enslaved by guilt. You don’t have to strive to prove yourself or excuse your behaviour in the past. Giving up your right to self-condemnation and letting go of the past entails burying it. Forgiveness is both a process and a choice. It’s making the decision to stop hating or devaluing yourself. Be kind and be patient during the process. Make realistic goals on the path of being your better self.
These steps to finally free yourself from the psychological, emotional, and even physical pain of carrying some guilt over something you may have done so many years ago may not be that easy, but you can find the treatment you need through Emotional Energy Healing, a type of Intuitive Healing service I offer. It is a technique I offer with a special focus on emotional healing that involves natural energy release by a gentle touch, healing areas that are energetically blocked in your body. If you’re familiar with Reiki, this specific type of Intuitive Healing is three to five times more powerful than regular Reiki. Imagine years of guilt residing in your body like a lump of stagnant energy. Over time, growing levels of repressed or suppressed guilt could build up emotionally and energetically in your body, and begin to physically affect a certain part of your body, a major organ, such as your heart. By releasing the emotions in your heart, it could prevent any major physical health issues such as high blood pressure, heart failure, heart attack, or heart diseases. You have the option of in-person sessions at my studio or having a distant healing session online.
All those negative emotions from the guilt that is stuck in the body will be isolated and identified until finally released from your body so they can no longer hold power over you. Through this specific type of Intuitive Healing, we would also be able to identify where that guilt came from, to begin with, so you could be extra aware and mindfully heal that part of you, or with someone, if that guilt is linked to someone. It will help you release and let go of those negative emotions that can impact your daily subconscious thought patterns and behaviour, helping you break free of guilt-tripping yourself for good.
