Guilt is a burden most people carry to a greater or lesser degree. It’s the feeling we are left with when we realise something we did or said could have been done or said better.
The problem with guilt is that it’s associated with the then and there but clings to us in the here and now. Quite often the window of opportunity has long since closed and there is no way we can rid ourselves of its burden.
And of all the guilts survivor guilt is perhaps the most insidious. It’s the cloud that descends when a person believes they have done something wrong simply by surviving a traumatic of tragic event. And it’s hard to shake.
The mental anguish caused by survivor guilt is something that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
It’s what binds pieces of our head and heart to the past in spite of the fact that survival may have been incidental and both unexpected and unplanned.
It can be difficult to grasp the concept that we are here because that is where we are meant to be and we are who we are because of what we have permitted and allowed.
It can be even more challenging to understand that the most important day of our life is the one we are now in.
Gary Bentley Counselling 