We feel guilt and shame for so many reasons. We didn’t do as much as we should have done. We spoke too sharply to our kids. We didn’t help our coworker like we said we would. We blame ourselves for things that may, in fact, just be life being…well, life.

When I was younger, I used to say that guilt and regret are useless emotions. I still feel that way to some extent. But I also think they can help us to remember the kinds of people we want to be. When we feel guilty because we yelled at our children, it’s because we want to be good parents. When we feel guilty because we  didn’t get everything on our to-do list done, it’s because we want to be productive and live up to our full potential. When we aren’t as helpful as we should be, it’s because we want to help others,  we want to be self-less.

We are human. We will not be perfect all the time. We will make mistakes. And we can give ourselves the compassion that we would offer to a good friend when they mess up. And we can learn from our mess ups, so that the guilt we have today doesn’t become our regrets and shame tomorrow.

These affirmations, I hope, will help with that.