We all make mistakes in our lives. Whether we say the wrong thing, hurt someone we care about, or make a professional blunder, the realization of having made a mistake can be painful. To make matters worse, most of us have a little voice in our heads that loves to berate and belittle. How could you have been so stupid? What were you thinking? Look at what you’ve done!
This mental abuse, also known as guilt, can go on for hours, days, and sometimes even years. If a friend or family member ever spoke to us in the way that this voice does, we would probably never talk to them again…yet we do nothing to stop the internal dialogue. For some reason, we believe that this self-imposed penance is our just retribution.
Although we don’t mean to torture ourselves, it just seems to happen. Some psychologists suggest that the majority of our behavior is driven by the unconscious mind. They believe that our actions are fueled by unconscious beliefs, known as memes, that are transmitted, either verbally or by example, from one person to another. While some memes are harmless, many of them are “mind viruses” that interfere with our common sense. Most of our memes take shape in childhood and adolescence, and we rarely question them as adults. But are they true?
