Hangover Guilt

Have you ever made a bad decision? Are you left with “hangover guilt” from that decision? I had never heard the term hangover guilt but when I looked it up the definition said it is something people may experience after a night of drinking too much. I heard the term from one of my friends when I asked her what she would like me to blog about. She said, “how we make bad decisions and are left with hangover guilt”.

Holding on to it, could keep you from moving on. I have made plenty of bad decisions but try to recognize them for what they are and grow from them. I try not to dwell on decisions I have made after they are made. I may ponder for weeks before a decision is made, but after it is done, I try to let it go. There are always those decisions that we make that refuse to go away and make us wonder if we made the right choice. Those are the ones that cause us stress.

Stress is a part of all of our lives. We all have it and stress can be good when it helps us to reach our goals, meet deadlines or avoid danger. Stress is a feeling of tension. It can make us nervous, angry and frustrated. I blog about stress often; it is a subject that I am asked about regularly. I haven’t blogged about the use of journaling to help with stress. Journaling is a way I can hash out my decisions. I can write down all the “what if’s” and the “I should have’s”.

Journaling usually consists of keeping a written diary of our thoughts and feelings. Think about this – you can’t always control what happens around you and/or to you, but you can control your response to what happens. Journaling is a great way to help you do this and to go over decisions you have made.

So exactly how can journaling help? Journaling gives you a way and a place to record your feelings associated with events. You may even consider it like therapy. Journaling allows you to gain self-knowledge. I love to write out my issues and concerns. I often talk out any stress that I may have had.

The hardest part of journaling is writing the truth. I remember when I had breast cancer and my ex-husband was not supportive. I needed to write about it to get my feelings out, but I couldn’t. I was afraid someone would see it. I was afraid someone would read it and judge me. I have finally found a way around that. If I have something hard to write that I don’t want anyone else to read, I just write it and destroy it. If I hand write it, I shred it, tear it up or burn it. If I type it, I delete. It is powerful to just get it out of my head.

Writing can be hard. Try journaling as a way to get over second guessing yourself. When you journal, no one reads it except you. You don’t need to worry about judging. All you need is paper and a pen/pencil and the desire.

Write.

Believe you can.

Write it out and get it out.