We need negative emotions; what we truly are looking for in optimal health is a balanced ratio between positive and negative emotions.
Arianna Solare: How do you experience guilt? What does the term mean to you? When does it occur? How do you navigate it in regard to yourself and others? Has this changed over the years for you?
Netic Rebel: Guilt for Me is simply an indicator of something being out of alignment with who I am and where I am in my life. If I feel guilt it is because I know that I am above the act that I am feeling guilty of, it’s a reminder. I certainly can’t feel guilty for something I don’t know I should feel guilty about. Once when I was a child, maybe nine years old, I killed a praying manties. I had it set in my head for some reason that praying manties were poisonous, and I was worried that it would attack my fiveyear- old younger brother. I told my mother with great pride of my heroics, only to find out that I killed a god. I was devastated and felt tremendous guilt. I still even in telling this story now feel sadness, but in the act I felt no guilt at all. It was only was I had learned more and was educated beyond my former self that I could feel guilt. Guilt is a great indicator of growth.
AR: Are feelings of guilt and feeling guilty useful reactions? If so, when? Can guilt lead to constructive and/or positive changes? If not, what can?
NR: Anger, guilt, self-doubt, all of these can be positive and useful. Often in the health and wellness space we tend to become extremist and dogmatic in our approach. We are so preoccupied with promoting the positive lifestyle that we forget that having all positive emotions is not positive. We need negative emotions; what we truly are looking for in optimal health is a balanced ratio between positive and negative emotions. Yes, this probably looks like more positive emotions than negative simply because humans are hard wired to hold onto and allow negative emotions; to impact us more than positive emotions, this is a survival mechanism. We need to learn with much greater severity and efficiency what is dangerous than what brings us pleasure. We can afford to take our time learning what brings us pleasure, what can bring us harm must be learned much quicker. So it’s important that we have more positives in our life than negatives but those negatives are valuable. Anger can be a great motivator to protect what we care about, and to help us acknowledge what we do not like or enjoy. Guilt helps to make us more socially sensitive, caring, and empathetic , and self-doubt is an incredible motivator for positive development through perseverance.
Netic Rebel is a cyberfuturist philosophy thought leader and one of the founding members of The Wildfire Initiative Arianna Solare as she is known in her human form – is a multidisciplinary artist and white cosmic world bridger.
