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Often, we end up doing things that may make us feel big emotions for a prolonged period of time. One such emotion – guilt – is action oriented in nature. It often compels us to make healthy changes to refrain from making the same mistakes again. “Guilt can serve as a valuable moral compass, encouraging you to change something in your life. However, excessive or irrational guilt can be detrimental, leading to self-doubt and emotional distress. Understanding the nature of guilt, its cultural and societal influences, and its role in shaping behavior and relationships is crucial in navigating this intricate emotion,” wrote Therapist Israa Nasir.

Israa further noted down a few ways by which we can work our way through guilt and make ourselves feel better:

Recognise the feeling: Instead of staying away from that emotion, we should embrace it and become aware of it. Knowing that we are feeling guilty and that we can recognise that emotion, is the first step to addressing it. We should be able to make clear differences between feeling guilty and feeling ashamed.

Examine the guilt: Often, strong emotions are messages that the mind is trying to tell us. Guilt can happen when we end up doing things that are in opposition to the values and beliefs we have. We should examine the guilt and try to dig deeper to find the root cause of it, and if it happened because of things that we did which are not in alignment with our value and belief system.

Make changes: We should make changes to the choices to perform actions that are more aligned to our value system. We should also try to channel guilt into constructive actions that can make us feel better. Apologising, making difficult conversations or stepping out of the comfort zone are some of the changes that we may need to make to address guilt.

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