We prefer not to walk through life feeling bad about ourselves. Although at times in our life… shame is a good thing.
Authors & Speakers behind Shame:
Brene Brown’s main focus is all about shame. She not only studies shame but has also written many books on the topic. Another author and speaker includes Pia Mellody who has talked about shame for over 30 years.
There are basically two kinds of shame. Healthy shame & Toxic shame.
Healthy Shame is when you feel bad about a behavior which you acted out and would like to change it. This type of shame pushed you to change the behavior which created the feeling of shame.
Toxic Shame is when you feel and believe you are a bad person because of your behavior and end up getting stuck and sit with the feeling.
Every once in a while, I have to self-reflect in order to self-correct. If we cannot look at ourselves, then we will have a difficult time changing our behavior. Here is where I bring in meditation. I use meditation to sit with myself and reflect on my own self, my behavior and use breathing or chanting to move through the shame if I feel bad about what I did. If you feel toxic shame, then meditating will allow you to move into a healthy shame as meditating connects you to your higher self, soul-self. Give it a try the next time when you feel shameful or are feeling stuck.