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Coping With What You Did - 9 Ways to Handle a Guilty Conscience

By James Warrington


If you've ever had a guilty conscience, you know how complicated it can be to go on with your own life just like before the event which caused your guilt. Taking action to help you make up for the damaging event or put it in your past can help you manage your guilt and move forward with more positivity.

Think about applying these ways to help you deal with a guilty conscience:

1 . Come clean. If you can go to the person you wronged, fully understanding and acknowledging what might happen to your relationship, you may be able to purge your own conscience.

* However , when you have a guilty conscience, it's often because you committed a severe error towards someone you truly love and care about. You may feel like you can never come clean with that person due to possible repercussions.

* If you are likely to choose this approach, look at it thoroughly before you implement it. Reflect both on how this particular understanding will impact the one you wronged as well as how coming clean will impact you. It might be better to use the written word.

2 . Note down your misdeed and an apology. Read it aloud to the particular person, or hand it to him to read.

3. Admit to yourself that you're human. Be truthful with yourself about what you did. Then, identify that every person can make errors and that your goal is to avoid creating the same error again.

4. Learn from it. Spend some time pondering about the event and the error you made. Put yourself back into that mindset and ask yourself, "Why did I do it? " Recognize where you were emotionally at that time and how destructive that "place" was for you. What can you learn from the encounter?

5. Find spiritual consult. If you are part of a religion that encourages confession and reconciliation, follow through with it! It's truly uplifting and encourages healing from your wounds.

6. Invest some time performing volunteer work. If you believe you must do something to "cancel out" the deed you committed, schedule time to do volunteer work in the community. It might be addressing envelopes for a local charity to deliver flyers or responding to a local organization's phones for 2 hours a week.

* Remind yourself that you're "paying" for your misdeed by doing decent things for others. Maintain positivity.

7. Focus on performing one good deed each day. Maybe you can give your neighbor a lift to the office. Or you can clean your dad's car. Take a look all around you. You'll see people everywhere performing everyday tasks. Jump in and assist them. It will feel good and renew your faith in yourself and your good actions.

8. Give funds to a cause you believe in. Whether it is to aid the Haitians get on their feet or to give toward the rebuilding of New Orleans, impart a decent portion of change to assuage your conscience. Will it help? It will surely create a positive difference to someone, perhaps to you as well.

* Identify within yourself, "I am donating this funds to show I'm still a decent human being, despite the fact that I made a grievous error. "

9. See a therapist or counselor. If you think you're about to burst from the weight of your error, it may be time to consult a specialist about it. Trained counselors are required to respect your privacy within limits as specified by your state. You will be amazed at how great it feels to say out loud what you did.

* A therapist can help you in dealing better with your feelings, learning to leave the error behind you, and grow to be a better person for it.

Coping successfully with a guilty conscience will take time and diligence on your part. Set to work applying the above methods. You will be happy you did!




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