Why I am not a vegan

[Unbound]

I envy anyone who does not buy into guilt. I am not so evolved or fortunate.

It's popular in New Age circles to think of guilt as something bad, something to be denied. I think they are confusing healthy remorse with lingering guilt that occurs as a result of nonforgiveness of self.

Healthy remorse has a purpose: to trigger introspection and, if appropriate, modification of choices. Healthy remorse shouldn't be suppressed.

We cannot decide for another person whether they 'should' feel guilt or not. But, an absence of guilt isn't necessarily an indication of being highly evolved. Nor is it necessarily a goal to aspire to.

Yes. That is how guilt works for me. It reminds me with visceral intensity that my actions or reactions were not ideal or my highest best. Which is why I am not evolved enough to be beyond guilt and its usefulness as an evolutionary tool—because I evidently still need these reminders.

My feedback system with myself doesn't really work in this way. When I recognize that another choice would have been wiser it usually comes with a sense of "D'uhh", rather than any sense of guilt over having taken the "wrong" action. I always acknowledge that my taking the "wrong" path was revealing to me the truth of myself towards the choices. That being said, sometimes I continuously take the "wrong" path and meet the same reminders, then over time I eventually am conscious enough to choose another way.

Guilt is too debilitating for me to be useful in an "alarm" kind of way because it brings out some of my most negative states of self which tends to further mislead me away from my ideals. However, some of my deepest healing has been through the integration of guilt and I do believe it has its use but honestly it seems like so many people around me live their lives filled with guilt from day to day over every little thing they are doing "wrong" and I just don't really understand it.

Maybe I am just at peace with the fact that I could be good or evil.