Anxiety vs guilt.

Most of the time, we consider anxiety as a negative emotion, something that needs to be avoided. And most of the time, we keep experiencing guilt.

At least for me, guilt is the default emotion. I am always feeling guilty of one thing or the other. I have rather become very comfortable with my guilt. And I am guessing, as you are reading this, you are also nodding along. 

Now, guilt very rarely nudges me in the right direction. Guilt generally leads to more guilt inducing activities and it is a vicious cycle to be a part of. Nothing gets done and we spend tremendous energy and we feel miserable all the time. 

Anxiety, on the other hand, is the predominant emotion whenever I am pursuing something that can make my life better. There is tremendous resistance in taking these activities to completion. And the anxiety adds on to the resistance. 

But what I realised is that the anxiety can be a indicator that I am doing the right thing. Rather the more anxiety I feel regarding a task, the more important it is for me to finish it. 

This is a very crooked mental system that we have but we do not have an option. Instead of wishing for a system that works according to our preferences, we can modify our actions in order to master the system.