How False Guilt Leads to Stress

False guilt is especially stressful because there is no way to make amends. The truly guilty refuse to accept responsibility, no matter what you do. You cannot work hard enough, do enough, or be enough to remove the guilt, because the guilt was never truly yours in the first place. The stress you feel today may be from carrying around this false guilt from your past. Already loaded down, you’re trying to carry around the added demands of your own life, and the weight is too much.

Gratitude is an antidote for guilt. When you feel guilty, you focus on what’s missing and strive to make up for the loss. When you feel gratitude, you focus on what you have, not on what you don’t. Guilt says, “This isn’t enough;” but gratitude says, “This is enough.” Living gratefully means accepting when enough is enough. Living gratefully means letting God determine when enough is enough.

When I was growing up, in church we sang a song about counting your blessings; we were told to name them one by one. As a child, I remember trying to do just that. Somewhere along the way to adulthood, I forgot that simple approach to gratitude. When did you last stop and count your blessings? Start with the most basic: life itself; then move on to food, clothing, shelter. How are you blessed physically or through your relationships? Each of us is blessed in so many ways, day by day, that we too often fail to appreciate those gifts.