Friday, February 5, 2010

Guilt: The Energy Sucker

I wanted to expand a little bit upon the "behind-the-scenes" emotions of my experience with Amy yesterday.

Had that experience happened to me last year, before working with a life coach, I would have walked around all day venting to my friends and family. I would have replayed the story in my mind a thousand times. I would have retold it a dozen times. "Can you believe that woman? Giving me the third-degree like that? How dare she?"

My friends and family would have been fabulous! They would have listened intently, given me the time and space to vent and cheered me on! The problem is, I would still not feel better after venting. The reason is that venting is not the solution to the problem.

The reason I felt bad after hanging up the phone was that I felt guilty that I had mistreated someone. The only solution to that problem is to "own it and clean it up." Those are the words of my life coach, Lynne Pietrzyk. Through her, I've learned the value of cleaning up my mistakes right away -- otherwise, they drain me.

A year ago, I would have carried those feelings of guilt with me for the entire day or longer. But, now that I've learned to fix my mistakes as soon as possible, I have saved myself hours upon hours of guilt.

What's wrong with walking around with guilt for hours on end? It is a huge energy drain. When you expend all of your energy feeling guilty about something or worrying about something, you can't put it toward positive experiences -- toward your NOW. This causes you to not live in the moment. And if you're not careful, you can get sucked in, and life will pass you by.

Had this experience happend to me a year ago, I would have been thinking about the exhange all day, instead of dealing with it and moving on.

But, instead, I had a fantastic, energetic day -- it was liberating to take control of the situation and do the right thing! It allowed me to enjoy my day!

I hope you enjoy your day today! Happy Friday!

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