Worry is making you feel guilty

Worry is sneaky and wears lots of disguises. One of its favorite ways to disguise itself is as guilt. In this context, we feel bad, not always because we’ve done something “wrong”, but because we’re afraid someone else thinks we have. We worry about what others will say, what they’ll assume. Which of their rules have we broken without realizing it? And in that swirl of shoulds and shouldn’ts, we lose our center.

And of course, there’s another way. When we notice worry and shift into responsibility, this feeling clears. We stop outsourcing our inner knowing and return to listening inward. We might ask: What do I know to be true? Guilt begins to lift when we trust ourselves to live with integrity, not perfection, not approval, but wisdom and healthy pride.

Where might your guilt be sourced from worry, and what might it feel like to take responsibility instead?