Guilty
Is guilt good or bad for you?
A definition for Guilt that stuck to my heart is
Guilt is a way for a person to feel sincere and committed when they lack sincerity and commitment
What a harsh way of put things. I literally didn’t sleep much that night pondering over that definition.
Is it a narrative that I tell myself that I care about things when I really don’t care about things? I turned to neurobiology to find some answers.
Guilt arises when our behavior conflicts with our conscience. It is a painful human emotion. Who wants a self reminder inside that we cheated on our mates or partners, wrote a crappy exam despite having chances to ace it, we let our loved one down etc.
Daniel Sznycer says “When we act in a way we are not proud of, the brain broadcasts a signal that prompts us to alter our conduct.” While it is painful, it also nudges us to do better next time. Guilt is an important, adaptive function important for human survival. It is functionally designed to protect us against harming those who are dear to us, and to make us behave better in the future. The intensity of guilt is linked to the person’s internal value system. In other words, guilt is linked to learned social standards. Naturally amygdala and frontal lobes got fired up causing the sweating, fear and pain. No wonder the scans shows no such activities for a sociopath.
I started feeling guilty for not being able to keep up my words on the 21 day challenge and made me introspect a little deeply to find that build in public is making me adapt and my conscience is bugging me. Looks like it is a good thing to get back on feet and prove myself that I can stick to the plan.
Raise your bar, feel guilty when you don’t meet your bar, take corrective action and keep progressing. Think decades and not days.
🥂 to moral standards!
Yo! Thanks for reading. Means a lot to me as attention is the hardest currency 🙏
If someone in your circle will benefit from this series, please pass them the details and ask them to subscribe here
If you would like to connect with the human behind the series, you can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn. I write a weekly (human) newsletter. It is more like a letter to friends. You could subscribe here to the private letter.