Let Go Of Guilt For Good

It’s a modern-day problem that affects more women than men – sometimes it even threatens to take over our lives. But you can take back control…

A huge 96% of women find something to feel guilty about at least once a day, while for almost half of us, feelings of guilt can invade our daily lives up to four times a day. And topping our list of what triggers those guilty feelings? Eating unhealthily, followed closely by not spending enough time with family. In 2010, a study published in the Spanish Journal of Psychology seemed to prove what many of us may already suspect: that women have a greater capacity for guilt than men. Researchers concluded that the female guilty conscience is a consequence of nurture, not nature. They claimed that, through socialisation and education, women are raised to be more conscious of, and anxious about, the feelings of others – a key factor in guilt. But extreme guilt among women – the kind that invades your every thought and complicates your every decision – is a truly modern phenomenon. It’s what happens when our guilty conscience collides with the endless choices that modern life presents us with. 

The challenge of choices