Guilt, Gratitude and Seasonal Shifts

Welcome to a new season of the Let’s Relieve Regret podcast! In this episode we discuss guilt, gratitude, and seasonal mood shifts.  

During check-in, we celebrate the idea of being a tourist in your own town. We also chat about that teenage yearning to ‘get out of dodge’ no matter where ‘dodge’ happens to be. 

[To skip the check-ins tune in at 8:51]

Shadoe's regret this time is more of a habit than a specific experience. She regrets using guilt as a way to drive action in her life. She has started to notice that making decisions this way usually leads to resentment and emotional hangovers. She knows that it is unrealistic to completely get rid of guilt. Something new she plans to try is to move Guilt from the driver seat to the passenger seat instead. “Or, better yet, get in the trunk.” 

During the feedback session, Victoria explains the five limiting beliefs, including the fear of shining. [13:24]. 

This behaviour influences many of her relationships. Beyond this impact, Shadoe also talks about how she feels a yearning to stay informed. Victoria helps Shadoe to see that guilt is a fallback behavior for her. 

Victoria reminds Shadoe to not suppress negative emotions because they will bubble up later. She also gives everyone a reminder about how to recognize toxic gratitude. 

From there, both hosts discuss the discomfort of noticing a habit that you want to change. There is an impulse to find the why. However, when you want to change a behaviour, finding the pattern of ‘the what’ is more important than finding out ‘why’ you do it. [30:40]

Next up is Victoria’s turn to share a regret. 

Victoria explains that in her work, and in previous episodes of this podcast, she has talked a lot about mental health stigma, especially Seasonal Affective Disorder (or S.A.D.). She struggles with S.A.D. in the winter. 

She explains that she recently discovered that it is possible to struggle with Seasonal Affective Disorder in the summer too. It does happen, it is just less common than S.A.D. in the winter. The symptoms are ultimately the same: feeling sad, listless, down; with a loss of interest in your activities, loss of energy, sleep problems and appetite changes. There is more research available for winter-onset S.A.D. but the summer-onset S.A.D. is not as well known.  

The hosts then have a cool discussion about probable reasons that people would suffer from S.A.D. in the summer, such as heat and humidity impacting their sleep patterns and clothing choices. Shadoe mentions that a common side effect of SSRI’s is sun-sensitivity, which makes being outside in the summer more difficult.

Victoria has a great piece of year-round advice. Be aware of the seasons you thrive and be kind to yourself during the other ones. [50:16]

We end our episode with a calming breathing exercise, led by Victoria.