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What is shame? In the dictionary, it states that it is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. I like to add that shame makes you feel embarrassed about who you are as a person. It makes you feel like you are worthless. We all have done some things in our past that if we had known better, we would have chosen a better route. As the late Dr. Maya Angelo stated: “When you know better, you do better”! Have you allowed guilt or shame to paralyze you and keep you stuck in your yesterday? Or maybe, you are constantly putting yourself in situations where people constantly throw up your past? Maybe, it’s time to change your environment or at the very least, change your perspective about your past.
I can tell you from experience that if you don’t deal with the shame, it will definitely keep you from moving on to what God has for you. A lot of people will tell you to just pray about it or let it go, but sometimes, you need to dig a little deeper because there could be a something that you dig up by its roots. Patting the surface will only make the problem seem less real than what it really is. I want to share with you five steps to help you deal with your shame so you can move on with your life.
5 Steps to Overcome Your Shame
- Acknowledge where your shame is coming from. There is a reason why you are embarrassed. Figure out what happened to you or what did you do to cause you to feel ashamed. This can be a scary process, but you can’t heal what you won’t confront.
- Tell the truth. Stop lying about it and be honest with yourself. It’s your life and until you get to the root of your shame, it will only keep lingering.
- Be willing to take responsibility for your choices. A lot of the times, it’s our own decisions and choices that causes us to get into a world of trouble. Stop blaming everybody else for all the things that are going wrong in your life.
- Do the work. The shame didn’t get there overnight and it’s certainly not going to leave over night. But, what I will say is if you allow yourself some grace and be patient with yourself, you will begin to see a huge change.
- Stop living in regret. Whatever happened to you is over and done with. If you keep rehearsing the same song, you will continue to get the same results.
I hope these tips help you to eliminate shame from you life so that you can move forward to what God has in store for you. It’s not what happened to you, it’s what you chose to do with what you have left. God can make everything work together for your good if you let him.
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QUESTION: What has shame caused you to miss out on? Leave me a comment below