How can I stop feeling guilty all the time? Guilt eats away at us and ruins our lives. It makes us doubt ourselves and, little by little, we lose our self-confidence and even our self-esteem. So what can we do about it? Here are 3 tips to free yourself.

1 – Accept and learn from guilt

The feeling of guilt is not something to be rejected, because it doesn’t come to us by chance.

In fact, when we feel guilty about something, it’s because we’re realizing that we haven’t behaved properly and that we’d like to have done better.

In fact, guilt comes like a teacher to help us become better, more caring, compassionate people…

In other words, guilt is an ally. The problem is, we don’t see it that way. Yes, we often see guilt as a punishment we inflict on ourselves.

And, we don’t look beyond that punishment. We don’t look for the teaching, and so we can’t get rid of it. Indeed, guilt ends up taking up all the space, and it eats away at us to the point of sometimes ruining our lives.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to change the way you look at the guilt you feel. It doesn’t come to punish you for bad behavior, it comes to teach you!

In other words, go back to the things that make you feel guilty and look for the teaching, look for what you’d like to have done better, then make the commitment to do better next time.

2 – How to stop feeling guilty: allow yourself to be imperfect

We’re human beings, we’re not perfect, because we’re here to learn, to grow and to evolve.

In fact, we’re not here to know, we’re here to learn. Can you see the difference?

Yet, ever since we were children, we’ve been taught the opposite. In fact, we were led to believe that perfection was possible and that we only had to work harder to achieve it.

Yes, our mistakes were pointed out, we were punished and we had to feel remorse every time.

That’s why today it’s hard to stop feeling guilty all the time, because that’s what we’ve learned to do.

Fortunately, we can unlearn this.

How can we do this? By accepting our imperfection.

It’s okay to make mistakes, as long as you’re aware of them and learn from them.

In fact, it’s high time we realized that guilt doesn’t help. In fact, if you’ve made mistakes, it’s not by feeling guilty that you’re going to change things; it’s by changing your behavior that you’re going to succeed. And to do that, you need to let go of your guilt in order to learn!

In other words, look back at the events that still make you feel guilty, and accept that you’re an imperfect person who’s still learning. Let go of your guilt and replace it with kindness and compassion for yourself.

Then seek out the teaching and make it a commitment.

3 – Others are responsible for their own happiness

Often, we feel guilty for others. Because we feel we’re not doing or being enough.

In fact, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, because we take responsibility for other people’s happiness upon ourselves, without even realizing it.

That’s why, to stop feeling guilty all the time, it’s essential that you understand that you’re not responsible for other people’s happiness.

You can bring them support, comfort, joy and tenderness, but you can’t bring them happiness.

In fact, happiness is something you make yourself. Everyone has their own recipe.

In other words, I wholeheartedly invite you to reconsider all the times you feel guilty, because unconsciously you feel responsible for the happiness of others, and let go of your guilt.

Do your best to be a good companion for others, but nothing more, because everyone has the responsibility to walk their own path.

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover Don’t feel like getting up in the morning, what can you do? 4 powerful tips
Discover Organizing your day: Top tips for a happy day

In addition, I recommend this inspiring book on the subject:

Forgiveness & Other Acts of Love by Stephanie Dowrick

This book tackles the whole world of forgiveness and provides paths to freedom from guilt and peace.
It’s very easy to pick up the book and read about any of the virtues at any time, because the author organizes her chapters around the individual “human virtues” of courage, fidelity, restraint, generosity, tolerance and forgiveness…
I gained a much better understanding of the right way to approach life and draw the lessons presented, and really valued the author’s arguments.
Great book!

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself.