The Lies Mommy Guilt Tells Us: How to Find the Truth

The One Thing Getting in My Way of Contentment.

Guilt.

I didn’t do enough crafts with my son.  I got bored playing for hours with him and wanted to enjoy and relish the time more.  I could write more, read more, crochet more.  I could work out.  I could use my time better.

So many things I could be better at.  So many things I felt I wasn’t good enough at.

And I wondered why I didn’t feel like my positive self.

I was letting negative thoughts run rampant in my mind.  I had let them take over, host a party, and celebrate their success at making a new home in my mind.

When had this happened and how had it started – I don’t know, but I knew it had to stop.

I took a day to refresh and find encouragement – something I hadn’t done in a long time.

It was enlightening.

Plenty of people felt the same way, experienced similar frustrations, and did their best to find solutions that worked for them.

I learned I actually was doing a lot with my son.

I was already managing my time well and had a lot of structures in place. 

I had valuable things to contribute in my writing too.

The most important lesson was to give myself a break and stop feeling guilty.

I needed to put everything in perspective.  Life was good.  I was doing fine and I certainly didn’t need to beat myself up about it. 

Moving Forward

So how did I kick those negative house guests out of my mind?  I tore down all their negative flyers.

I didn’t need to believe the negative thoughts that papered my mind.  Instead, I replaced the negative thinking with positive encouragement.  

I took time out to step back and reassess.  Sometimes we don’t even realize how our thinking is impacting our feelings and actions. 

It may take time to retrain my brain, but I know I’ll get there and be all the happier for it.

Here are some questions to help you reflect too.

Questions to Ponder:

What do I feel guilty about? Are there certain areas of my life I feel the most guilt?

When do I feel most guilty? Are there certain circumstances or times of day that trigger this feeling?

Do I feel guilty for doing things that are required of me? Maybe you feel guilty for going to work/doing chores and not spending time with the kids but this is something you have to do…

Is this guilt true or false? Write down what you feel guilty about and then next to it write down what you do in that category. If I feel guilty about spending time with my kids and list off 5-10 things I did with them during the day then guilt is false. If I feel guilty about not working out and find I haven’t worked out in a couple months, this is true and needs action taken if it’s important to you.

If the guilt is false, what is one thing I can tell myself the next time I feel guilty about this? Instead of what am I not doing/providing … what are you doing/providing?

What one task/step can I do now, tomorrow, or this week that will help me confront this guilt if change needs to be made?

May you find a peaceful state of mind and find contentment without guilt. You got this!

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