We have all heard the expression “misery loves company.” The root of all misery is guilt, and guilt loves company, too! So we project our subconscious guilt onto others to make ourselves feel better. This may work momentarily, but it only succeeds in making us feel guiltier because we haven’t been completely freed of the guilt. Thus, around and around we go. The fascinating part is that we usually don’t realize we are doing this because we don’t see that we are projecting guilt onto ourselves. We beat ourselves up without being aware of it, and then we feel justified in making others feel guilty because it feels so natural.
We have all heard the saying, “Dogs are a man’s best friend.” Why is that? Maybe it’s because they don’t project their subconscious guilt onto us. That’s because dogs can’t feel guilt. They can only feel sad if we yell at them or forget to take them for a walk. As a result, we feel great love and compassion from them. If we would like other people to feel love and compassion from us, maybe we should take our cue from dogs and eliminate guilt from our lives.