What is the point of guilt?
When you feel guilty about something, who benefits? How does it help you or the object of the guilt? It would be difficult to come up with any long-term benefits. We might argue that it flags up behaviour that we wouldn’t want to engage in again. Those feelings might make sure that we don’t subject others to the same behaviour, meaning that they benefit from our guilt…but is there anything else? When you feel guilty you know that you do not want to engage in that behaviour again, otherwise, you wouldn’t be feeling guilty in the first place; and there would be no point in the guilt to endure. It hangs around and chips away at our self-confidence encouraging a negative view of ourselves. It sticks to our thoughts, beliefs and affects other aspects of our lives. Guilt lies to us. It distorts our thoughts. It makes you think you are bad even when all the evidence suggests otherwise. It chatters in your ear as you lay awake at night encouraging you to make “if only…” statement