I have suffered with extreme shame, guilt and regret. From things that have happened to me, situations I have put myself in, things I have or haven’t done in my life. The realisation that ‘I am not the things that have happened to me, I am not the things I have done’ has given me some relief from it. It took me years to even believe that could be true.

I have promised myself that I will no longer choose to do the things that have caused me to feel guilt and regret, so if I do have those feelings now, I know I am not the cause of them and it doesn’t overwhelm me in the same way. It has also eased the guilt of awful things people have done to me, that guilt is not ours to carry. Forgiveness has helped too, for myself and others.

Sorry if this doesn’t make sense, it’s a difficult one to explain as I have been so caught up in it for such a long time.