Everyone makes mistakes, but what if you’ve made a mistake and you can’t seem to let yourself get past it? Believe it or not, beating yourself up over a past mistake isn’t a healthy way to go through life. The trick is to figure out why you did whatever you did and then to learn from it – which of course is easier than it sounds!
Take responsibility
An important step in beginning to forgive yourself is to take responsibility for the mistake you’ve made and any hurt you have caused. Apologize to anyone you’ve hurt and help them if you can by fixing your mistake, if possible.
Think of the mistake as a learning experience
If you work through the mistake, you can not only learn from it but learn something about yourself as well. What really lead you to take the action you took? Is this kind of a behavior something that keeps coming up – a behavior that you and those close to you wish would change?
It is also important to keep in mind that, true, some mistakes can be avoided, but sometimes mistakes just happen. They are a part of life, and no one is immune to them.
Self-distance
Is it possible that the situation is not as it seems? Instead of ruminating and beating yourself up, try to see the situation differently. How would a third person, an outsider, see the situation? What if a friend of yours was in the same situation and couldn’t forgive himself – what advice would you give him?
Allow yourself to move on
It is impossible to forgive yourself if you keep thinking about what happened, playing the whole thing out in your mind over and over (and it won’t really change anything, anyway). Stop yourself before you get into the loop of rethinking your mistake and do something positive instead, like taking a walk.
We all make mistakes, but the important thing is to learn from them and grow. If you are having a hard time forgiving yourself, it may be a sign that you need help dealing with your past. The staff at Wasatch Crest Treatment in Heber, Utah, can help. Call (800) 385-3507 today.
