Dealing with guilt has never been an easy task for me. I’ve always held on to the burden of the bad thing that I did for years. Even now, I still deal with the guilt about the time in THIRD GRADE when I lied to my mom about the homework that I had. Maybe to some people dealing with guilt may come easy, but in reality it’s a level of maturity that comes only with experience in life. Today, let’s go over how I deal with guilt, let’s start.

I avoid the thought

I often times don’t even want to think about the mistakes that I’ve made because it would just bring back awful memories. This is my first line of defense against my guilt and I try to honor this method as much as possible.

I remember back when I was a kid in school, I was very honest and for me to do something dishonest was just horrible for me. If I ever did something dishonest or wrong, I would immediately go and apologize or try and make it up with the people that I did the wrong with. Anyways, imagine how the guilt of lying to someone was to me! I couldn’t handle it! It was unfair that I had to lie. I don’t want to be a liar and I am very honest.

I confront it face to face

If something is hitting me really hard about something wrong that I’ve done, then I will confront the guilt head on. I will go and confess to the right people or whatever is needed to make things right because I would prefer to be known as a bad honest person than a good liar.

Just recently I had some trouble with my sister. What happened was that my sister had really annoyed me and I yelled at her. I will admit that it was uncalled for, but my sister went to my mom and told her what I had said. My mom was so mad at me and I lied. I lied about a few things just to get out of punishment. Anyways, my sister had said the truth about some things, and I had told the lie about those things, so the next day, I went to my mom and dad and I told them, “You know what, my sister was telling the truth, and I’m sorry mom.” My mom, took it surprisingly well. I told her the truth and she just let it go. I feel like telling the truth is better than being easily left off the hook.

If I can’t tell the correct people…

If I can’t tell the correct people, then I will tell someone confidential. What is the difference you might ask? If I did something wrong against my parents, then I will go and tell my parents what I did wrong. If I did something wrong against my parents but I can’t tell them, I will tell a teacher, principal, someone older and wiser, pastor, anyone with authority in my life.

I remember a few times I had been admitted to the hospital and I specifically did not want my parents to know what was going on in the hospital. I wanted my private information to be kept private because honestly, I didn’t feel comfortable with my parents knowing about my health both mentally and physically.

If I can’t tell anyone!

If I can’t tell anyone, then I let my higher power know what is going on. I am Christian and I believe that God can worry about the things that are too out of my hands.

I remember that in my life, there have been loads of times where I went to God about the things that I couldn’t say to anyone else. I have secrets too and the only one who knows sometimes is God. I confess absolutely everything to him because he already knows, not meaning to preach here so let’s move on!

When I can

Sometimes I have the option to forget about the things that I’m guilty of. Sometimes I do things that are harmful, but sometimes I can forget about those things because they really weren’t something too bad to begin with.

Sometimes I have guilt over a traffic accident that I almost caused. Sometimes I have guilt over being mad at my mom. Sometimes I have guilt over things that aren’t even real! At these times with these “small guilts” I can choose to forget about them easily.

A thing that I’ll do to forget about the things that I’m guilty of is sing. I sing my heart out when I’m feeling guilty because it helps me cope. It helps me to forget about everything because when I sing, I pretend like I’ve filled up Madison Square Garden and I’m playing to a crowd of ten million.

Another thing that I do whenever I’m feeling guilty is I’ll treat myself to something. When I treat myself to this thing that I’m eating, I remind myself that it’s okay to mess up. It’s okay to mess up and I’m going to get through this. I have gone through worse things before and now it’s just another day at the office.

Moving forward

I think I have plenty of coping mechanisms to handle my guilt. My guilt, as painful and evident as it may be, will not govern my life. I give myself permission to mess up. Why? Because I am just a human and that’s what humans do. There is not a single reason why I should never feel guilty because I do mess up, but it’s also not okay to dwell on that guilt forever because then that will bring you down in life.

Thank you all for listening in on this blog post. I hope that I have been an encouragement and inspiration to you guys. Please Like, comment, share, and subscribe. If you have any questions about mental health, please shoot us a message and we’ll try and respond back to you as soon as possible. Thank you once again, this has been German Gonzalez, signing out!