Did you sleep through your workout? Again.

I want to share something that I'm noticing as a theme, that I'm learning about personally.

I want to talk about guilt.

The last few weeks, I've had so many conversations and personal experiences that I knew I needed to open up a new conversation around it.

I feel this cross between anxiety and a sinking feeling in my stomach more often than I'd like.

It happens when I am trying to take a nap.

Or when I need to post another blog.

And especially when I have people waiting for me to do something.

For you it may be when you feel overly full.

Or when you slept through the time you said you were going to exercise.

Or even not calling your parents enough.

It's left me asking two questions:

When have I been sufficiently made aware of my shortcomings?

And when am I allowed to be happy?

I teach people tools to interact with their emotions differently and they notice their life change before their eyes.

This was a big one for me.

Learning to sit with guilt.

It was so hard because I thought that it was helping me be a good person.

Keeping me from hurting people when I was upset.

And then I realized it was also keeping me well-hidden.

Taking on more and more allowed me to never admit what I need- to myself or others.

It kept me from receiving.

From taking up space and being seen.

I used to struggle with anxiety, crippling anxiety.

I couldn't sleep, my weight would go crazy and I even called out of work for a week when it got really bad.

Then I realized the difference between push and pull when it comes to emotions.

Some emotions, like joy or curiosity, pull us toward something and others, like guilt, shame, and fear, seem to push us.

There's a felt-sense difference between an activity you don't have to be told to do and one that feels like it's forced.

Think about your daily routine, how many of your activities can you "not wait" to do?

What percentage of the day do you feel excited about?

There are two motivators I see when I work with clients, the ones that are preventing punishment and those that are moving toward feeling better.

If you're like me, guilt motivated me for years.

Pushing me to do things, leaving me feeling drained and stuck.

Truthfully, guilt was under so many of my actions, it was hard to determine what I actually liked doing anymore.

If there's an emotion I’m happy I've become more familiar with, it's guilt.

I don't feel like I've mastered it but I do know what works when I'm feeling stuck in it.

This doesn't have to rob you of happiness for the rest of your life.

I can show you how to turn guilt into a more satisfying fuel for the life you want.

It can be easy.

Some simple shifts can have your guilt pulling you in the direction of your dreams- and fast!