It is so much easier to become a happier person the more you avoid guilt and instill positive habits into your lifestyle. Although it is easy to feel guilty for small things and small habits, it is easy to get out of the guilt cycle with a few tips.
On that note, here is how to be a less guilty person, more positive, and attain a better quality of life.
Make time correcting those things you feel guilty for
If there is something that is eating you up every time you think about it due to the guilty feeling it gives you, then make an effort to make a change.
For example, you might often feel guilty for not visiting the grave of your loved one after their passing. Although it isn’t a task that might instill happiness into your life, it can help you stop feeling guilty and will give you a new outlook on life.
Taking time to visit your loved ones’ personal Cemetery Headstones every so often will ensure that you don’t feel the guilt when you haven’t been in a long time. Making the effort, and instilling the effort into your routine, will help you take time remembering your loved ones and not feeling the guilt by not having visited the cemetery in a long time.
Accept what has happened
Should you feel guilty for something that has happened, then you simply need to learn to accept it. For instance, your feelings might have changed for someone, and hence, you broke your relationship with them. Although it is normal to feel guilty, you need to accept the change and event so that you can move on.
The quicker you can accept it, the quicker you can understand that what happened was for a reason.
Even if it is difficult to accept, doing so will help you move on and move past the guilt.
Feel grateful for where you are now
Everyone goes through difficult times in life. Hence, it is important to understand that it is normal to experience tough times and you need to realize that you will get through it.
Therefore, it is important to feel grateful for where you are now and look back on how far you have come since what has happened that has caused the guilt.
No matter if you still feel guilty, you can accept and feel grateful for where you are now and understand that you will feel positive on the other end.
Reflect on yourself
On the same note and feeling grateful for where you are now in comparison to where you are, it is useful to reflect. Reflecting on what you have learned throughout the experience (that has caused your guilt) can help you realize that you are only human and that all humans make mistakes.
If you avoid thinking about the experience, then it will sooner or later come back to bite you. Therefore, focusing on the experience and finding a way to accept it, learn from it, and help it improve your future, will help you reflect efficiently and stop feeling guilty for such small things.
Think about someone else being in your shoes
If you are feeling guilty for something so small or so normal, then you could make yourself feel better by thinking about someone else being in your shoes. You might know that you are silly for feeling guilty. Hence, it will help to think about someone else being in your shoes and how they would deal with it.
You will realize that what has happened or is happening isn’t so bad and not someone to feel guilty for. Hence, you can stop or reduce your feelings of guilt.
Ask for advice
Speaking of someone else being in your shoes, you could ask your loved ones or colleagues for advice. You could ask them what they would do if they were going through the same thing.
Getting advice will help you see the experience in a different light and take a different perspective on how to deal with it.
Appreciate yourself
If you are feeling guilty for not going to the gym, eating healthy the past week, or lacking social life, then you simply need to realize that you are one person and you can’t do everything. Appreciating yourself more will help you to realize that sometimes you just need a break.
You will understand that having time off from the gym helped you to get a work task done or having a takeaway helped improve your emotional state after a stressful day.
You can appreciate yourself through thinking or by treating yourself. If you are feeling guilty for not giving yourself enough “me” time, then do so by having a pamper night or taking yourself out for a well-deserved drink.
Focus on the great things that you do
Even if you have done something bad or gone through a bad experience, you can balance that out by focusing on the great things that you do or have done. Nobody is perfect and remembering that you do great things can take away the guilt for something bad or ineffective that you have done.
If you find it difficult to believe that you are a great person, then it can help to write down all of your achievements. Writing this down will ensure that you do not forget them and can be reminded of them when you feel guilty.
You could display these achievements and great personality traits on notes around the house, as phone wallpaper, or on daily reminders. Focusing on your positives will help you recognize how amazing you are and all of the great things that you do.
The more you put these things into practice, the more you can improve your quality of life and stop feeling guilty for such small things. Simply accepting what has happened and reflecting on experiences can help you understand that there is no need to feel guilty.
