Handling Guilt Gracefully
The Feeling Called Guilt Guilt is something you did (or didn’t) that you shouldn’t (or should) have done. A past event. Or perhaps something that is still being done – a present perfect event. The question is: Who decides wether it is wrong? Society? Culture? Parents? Anything that you should/ shouldn’t have done, implicitly means that it has consequences coming from outside you – friends, family, boss, teacher, society, etc. Who sets these rules? What is it that you desire(d) which cannot (couldn’t) happen as there were rules? Guilt is different from shame. Guilt is the internal awareness of your error, whilst shame is when someone else knows about it. (very likely people feeling bad about their guilt, could really be worried about the potential shame if someone finds out about their act) Now guilt has several flavours. The spot-event guilt where you did something, like scratching a friend’s car or ...