Guilt.

As I went to my freezer for another dose of Ben and Jerry’s American Dream, I opened the lid to find that a mysterious amount of the delectable ice cream was gone. “What!?!” I thought. “Who ate my ice cream?” Suddenly, I remembered that I live alone, meaning that I was the one who had eaten said ice cream. As I stared at the silky swirls of caramel that familiar feeling began to sink into my stomach. Guilt.  I made a face very similar to this:

Guilt is a funny thing, and I think that we often feel it more than we realize. There are many types of guilt, for example:

·         I shouldn’t have eaten that guilt

·         I’m a bad friend guilt

·         My family will be mad guilt

·         I was just mean guilt

·         I shouldn’t have bought that guilt

·         It’s all my fault guilt

·         I wasn’t supposed to be doing that guilt

As many of you know, it was my New Year’s resolution to not judge others as I feel this is a very bad trait of mine. What I’ve found is that when I do judge people, ie: the stinky hippie next to me on the elliptical today, I instantly feel bad that I scrunched up my nose when he got next to me. I don’t know this guy.  Maybe he has an allergy to soap? Mad respect for making it to the gym on a Saturday morning is more along the lines of what I should be saying to this guy. I’m guilty.

The trouble with feeling guilty is that often there is little you can do but move on and try to make a better choice next time. I think of my students when I say, “Was that a good choice or a poor choice?”  I’ll try to remember this quote the next time I’m feeling bad, and hopefully be ready to move on: