We all experience feelings of regret and guilt from time to time. It’s a natural part of being human. Whether it’s a relationship that didn’t work out, a fight with a loved one, or taking on too much at work, these emotions can have a significant impact on our lives.
However, what happens when these experiences become a repetitive cycle due to guilt and regret?
How guilt and regret affect our emotional and social well-being
It’s important to recognize that guilt and regret can affect our emotional and social well-being. According to WebMD, an online publication that provides valuable health information, the social and emotional symptoms of guilt can be hidden in our everyday actions.
We may try to justify certain thoughts, but guilt could very well be the root cause.
Symptoms of guilt may include
- being overly sensitive to the effects of our actions,
- feeling overwhelmed by the possibility of making the wrong decision,
- having low self-esteem,
- putting others before ourselves until it becomes detrimental,
- and avoiding our full range of emotions.
Guilt, Regret, and A Time Loop, Is it Groundhog’s Day
When we dwell on these negative emotions and allow them to take over, it can create a time loop.
When we dwell on these negative emotions and allow them to take over, it can create a time loop that can feel very similar to the film, Groundhog Day, which depicts a man who lives the same day repeatedly.
Groundhog Day tells the story of Phil Connors, a self-centered weatherman who finds himself trapped in a time loop, reliving the same day over and over again. Phil goes through a range of emotions as he tries to escape the time loop and find a way to move forward.
As he continues to experience the same day, he begins to see the world and his actions in a new light, ultimately leading to personal growth and a deeper understanding of himself and those around him.
An Emotional Timeloop is an Emotional Feedback Loop
Similarly, we can get caught in this cycle. This cycle becomes an emotional feedback loop where we continually replay the event in our minds, causing us to feel worse and worse. It’s a cycle that can make it difficult for us to move forward and make progress in our lives.
Remember, that it’s okay to feel regret and guilt. It’s a natural part of the human experience. But it’s important to recognize when these feelings start to take over our lives and prevent us from moving forward.
By acknowledging our emotions and seeking help, we can break free from this emotional cycle and unburden our inner being so that we can create the life we want to live.
As someone who has been shame-prone most of her life, I can completely understand how difficult it can be when feelings of regret and guilt become a constant in our lives. These emotions can become a form of regression, which is like being stuck in an emotional time loop that keeps us from moving forward in life.
Accordingly, one can see how this can prevent us from creating the life we want to live because it can distort our perception of reality.
And this repetitiveness degrades and becomes regression. Regression is like experiencing time loops, where we continue to have the same experiences in our finances, relationships, and careers.
Since time is a neurobiological construct, meaning that we create the experience of time with our minds (this is why when we’re having fun time flies, and when we are bored time seems to move slowly), we can falsely think we are moving forward but we really aren’t.
Furthermore, because time is a neurobiological construct, our emotions play a significant role in creating this time loop of regression. Emotions are essentially energy in motion, and they cause neurons in our brains to fire.
Guilt and Regret Wire Neurons in an Emotional Time-Loop
As Dr. Joe Dispenza, a well-known American chiropractor, neuroscientist, and lecturer, says, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.”
This means that when we repeatedly fire the same neurons, the connections between those neurons strengthen. This is how we create the time loop of regression – we strengthen the neural pathway associated with those emotions.
For example, if you were embarrassed by a bully in front of your 3rd-grade class during an assembly, and then at a huge party when you were fifteen, you may now find that you get embarrassed in large crowds before anything even happens. These neural pathways are powerful, and they can cause us to get stuck in an emotional time loop like regression.
New Neural Pathways and Regression
Feelings of guilt and regret can have both a physical and mental impact on our health and well-being.
You see, our brain is incredibly powerful, and it’s constantly creating new neural pathways in response to our experiences.
This means that every experience we have caused our brains to make new connections between neurons to process and store information about what’s happening around us.
However, this can also mean that certain emotions or connections between neurons can create an emotional time loop, like regression. In the case of guilt, when we continuously relive a memory of guilt, certain neurons in our brain fire together, creating a neural pathway.
The more we relive the experience by recalling the memory, the stronger the connections become between those same neurons. This means that every time we think about that memory, we feel more and more guilty, and the guilt connects to other experiences in our life.
Physical manifestations of guilt and regret
This emotional time loop can affect not only our mental health but also our physical health. It can lead to physical issues such as headaches and backaches, which can make us feel even worse.
It’s essential to break free from these destructive emotions and stop the emotional time loop. We can start by recognizing when we’re in this loop and consciously choosing to break the pattern. We can also try to reframe our thoughts and focus on positive experiences, which can create new neural pathways in our brains.
Seeking support from friends, family, or a therapist can also help break free from this cycle. Remember, it’s never too late to break free from destructive emotions and create a more positive, fulfilling life.
But how can we break free?
Breaking the Regression Cycle
The first step is recognizing what’s happening. You are remembering (or putting back together again) the past from a point of view that does not serve your well-being.
For example, let’s say you’re feeling guilty about something that happened in the past, and it just won’t go away. Rather than focusing on what made you feel this way, try a process called “Revision.”
Revision
“Revision” was coined by Neville Goddard, a well-known author, and speaker in the field of Human Potential. Over the years, people in the field of Metaphysics have upgraded the concept and used it as a self-empowerment technique to break the regression cycle.
Revision is when you revise a situation. Instead of focusing on what happened or why it was wrong, think about how the experience could have been better. Here is the step-by-step process of Revision:
- Take a few deep breaths and relax.
- Think of the past situation that’s bothering you or what made you feel guilty. If it helps, write down how this event happened so you can see everything clearly in front of you.
- Now instead of thinking about why something was wrong from your point of view, think about how the situation could’ve been better.
- What if this experience had a different ending? How would it be different? Write down the new outcome and how that makes you feel.
- Read it before you fall asleep each night and again when you wake up. Continue reading your new outcome until you stop rehashing the past situation that made you feel guilt, regret, or shame.
Revision works for situations such as fights, disappointments, and words unspoken…but for deep trauma, getting help from a licensed therapist is always advised.
Retrocausality
Another self-empowerment technique for breaking the time loop of regression is called Retrocausality.
In quantum physics, retrocausality is the idea that an effect can happen before its cause. It is when the future sends signals back in time to the past. Some even believe a future event can cause an effect on something that happened hours ago, which is why we may experience déjà vu or even have premonitions.
According to Cynthia Sue Larson, the best-selling author of Quantum Jumps and Reality Shifts:
“This view (retrocausal effect or retrocausality)adopts a symmetrical treatment of time which allows causal movement in two directions, rather than only from past to future. Physicists Stephen Hawking and Thomas Hertog’s concept of a ‘top-down cosmology’ views the universe as having begun in every possible way, with the most probable pasts being determined right now. In contrast with the assumption that time must always flow in one direction from past to future.” — Cynthia Sue Larson
Sending Messages from the Future to the Past
But how do we use retrocausality to break the time loop of regression? We send messages back to our past.
For example, let’s say you were in a relationship with someone who cheated on you. Instead of leaving the relationship, you forgave your partner, and your partner cheated again. You regret taking this person back when all your friends warned you. It has affected your ability to trust. Unlike Revision, the process of Retrocausality or Retrocausal Effect works with the Causal Body.
As it happens, we have more than one body. We have a Causal Body and a Physical body. The causal is the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of our being, while the physical is what you can see with your eyes.
Changing how we connect to events of the past
The process for Retrocausality has been modified from its original usage in quantum physics by physicist John Steward Bell to help people change their relationships or experiences around past events. The process of Retrocausality is:
- Relax and close your eyes. Think of the past situation that’s bothering you or what made feel guilty.
- If it helps, write down how this event happened so you can see everything clearly in front of you.
- Next, go back to the day of the incident you regret, for example, the day you found out about your cheating partner.
- Instead of taking your partner back. You tell yourself to “break it off; this will happen again.” You imagine telling your partner it’s over and feeling good about it. Write down this new outcome if you need to.
A Crystal Boost from Mother Nature
With both revision and retrocausality, you can use the following crystals for support:
- Lapis Lazuli is used to release any state of mind that no longer serves you. This includes guilt, regret, and shame.
- Sunstone helps amplify your good energy while grounding out the negative energies in the area. It will help increase self-confidence while easily releasing past mistakes or hurts from others.
- Sugilite is used to release any negative or outdated energy patterns. This stone will help you feel better about yourself while letting go of the past, even if it feels like there is no future.
- Green Aventurine facilitates personal growth by encouraging acceptance and compassion for self with ease. It helps one learn how to love themselves unconditionally
The first thing many people say after hearing about this process is, “But I remember what happened.” True, but keeping with theories of quantum physics, once you sent that message back to the past and told yourself to “break it off,” and you told your cheating partner it’s over, you created a new timeline and a version of yourself that did not have the experience of being in a relationship with a serial cheater.
You are now the version of yourself that can trust others until you are given a reason not to trust someone. You are now the version of you who understands if someone shows you who they are, believe them.
Again, when you have experienced deep trauma which may cause thoughts of (suicide, self-harm, and you are self-medicating), then seeking the help of a licensed therapist is always advised.
Free Your Mind
I hope these techniques have demonstrated how you can break the time loop of regression. You don’t have to continue living in the past. You can change your experience and create a new present by letting go of the regret or guilt that keeps you recreating similar experiences.
Despite what we may feel at the time (stuck, stagnant, frustrated), we can free our minds, and our life will follow. Remember, you can create the life you want to live and experience joy and abundance while you’re doing it.