"Guilt is the biggest waste of time." Reverend, Mark E. Spencer.
There are all kinds of guilt trips we can take. There is guilt that we put on ourselves, and there are guilt trips we allow others to put on us. Either way a guilt trip is an expensive, unnecessary trip to take. It does no good, and can do a lot of damage to one's health.
Guilt has its place in society, if one has truly done something to be guilty for. If there is remorse, "a deep, torturing sense of guilt felt over a wrong that one has done," Webster's New World Dictionary, one needs to work this feeling out. It is not only normal, but also acceptable to feel guilty if one has culpable reason.
This kind, as well as any form of guilt one is unable to work out on their own, may require professional couseling or psycho therapy.
However, what about the self-imposed guilt we carry that stems from some misconception of truth? Or worse, the guilt we feel that other have put on us. These are the guilt trips one needs to avoid.
Self-Imposed Guilt
This type of guilt concerns the feeling of not being "good enough," being "less-than" adequate. Feeling lack; not being able to provide all that is needed. An example of this would be, the parent that feels guilty for having to leave their child at daycare because they have to work. If the child gets sick at daycare, the guilty feelings intensify.
Self-imposed guilt also has to do with feeling at fault, or causing something to happen that hurt another. For example, a spouse asks his or her mate to give them a hand with the yard work, and their mate pulls a muscle, laying them off from work a day or two. Or worse, they have to go to the doctor for the pain.
Unless one planned for these things to happen, there is really no need to feel guilty about them. We may not like the fact that these things happened, and we may not be happy about it, but we did not cause them to happen.
The difficult thing about coming to grips with this self-imposed guilt, is understanding that if one is doing all they can for the well-being of others, than there is nothing else that could be done. Sometimes, the difficulty lies in knowing when we have done all we can.
Also, if one has only pure intentions, and keeps other's best interests at heart, there is never any reason to feel guilt over something that simply could not be avoided.
Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country, but not to where the quilt is." George Carlin
When Other Make Us Feel Guilty
Those who were brought up on guilt trips, have a tendency to put guilt trips on others. Those who inflict guilt onto others, actually "feel better" for doing so. It's like the person who puts another down, somehow feels like they have "raised" themselves up.
Take for example the girl who is made to feel guilty from her girlfriends, for choosing to go out with her boyfriend, instead of to a party with the girls. The girls will tell her about the good time she missed, and how she "should have been there."
Another example is the boyfriend who puts a guilt trip like this on his girlfiriend, for not being able to accompany him at a business party.
This is the guilt one should run from. This, as well as any guilt, is very unhealthy. If one holds onto guilty feelings too long, the guilt will inevitably manifest into an illness. Negative thoughts or feelings kept inward are like a cancer to the body, and the cancer disease often manifests as a result.
The best way to avoid taking these expensive guilt trips, is to simply "stay home." That is, do not even pack a bag; stay centered, meditate on feeling peaceful, and let guilt roll off your back, like water off a duck's back.
