This is literally nothing but....

Okay so this is literally nothing but when little things like this happen- it triggers my anxiety. I stepped on a snail. Yep I stepped on a snail and I heard the crunch!!! :,( just knowing that I had destroyed a little life has made me feel the worst of the worst, like i am some sort of monster. I feel so bad and I can’t control that! Any tips on how I can somehow deal with this? It causes me stress. Thank you, Sarah.

You didn't destroy a little life. Fate/God/The Universe destroyed (or possibly promoted?) a little life and ordered you in to be its chess-piece. And it's 'demise' was instantaneous so you didn't even hurt it / it didn't feel a thing nor know a thing. It's not nothing, it's a fully-functioning Conscience (tick!) and natural-born Buddhist tendency. :-) But to turn off that icky feeling, now go and do something goodly.

Its not nothing if it is something to you. You remind me of my daughter who will cry over any loss of life. Life is a gift. Good for you. Feeling bad may feel bad (duh), but it may not be a bad thing. It could show a conscience, sympathy, empathy, and a profound appreciation of life, no matter how small or snail. "Whomever you do to the least of these, you do unto me." OK, so that may not apply to snails, but I think you get the idea.

You are so sweet Sarah, Perhaps you were a Buddist monk in your past life!! Watch the movie SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET with Brad Pitt. I feel bad when I have to kill a bug too, but then I imagine what life form their light will connect to and become next. The bugs I kill receive good karma, and I receive a little bit of bad karma from the act of killing it. So do a good deed to increase your karma, and look at the beautiful circle of life!! All life is only borrowed. Another movie to watch is AVATAAR!! One of my all time favorites!!

Thank you all for the replies and all of you for taking time to help me out! I don’t know any other way to put it- Everything has made sense now and I feel so so much better! I will be definetly watching the recommended films, has given me something to occupy my time haha. Thanks again for the help! Deeply appreciated. Sarah.

You may not have been a Buddist monk....but you certainly are a true soul. Connected to yourself. This world is full of zombies, people that have disconnected from the truth within their soul (often at no fault of their own).....you are special. Stay connected to your soul. Don't let the world make you cold, or turn you into a werewolf. Stay filled with LOVE and TRUTH. XOXO You are going to LOVE AVATAAR!!!

It's perfectly fine to feel upset over causing death, but it was a complete accident, and unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world. We have to eat other creatures, or kill creatures that are pests and will spread disease or damage our crops. Conveniences to our modern world, like roads and vehicles, lead to many animals being killed daily. I don't mean to freak you out, but just by living and moving around, and going about your daily life you are killing things. We have microscopic, live creatures and parasites all over us, and all over our world. At the base of each of your eyelashes? There are microscopic creatures. In the plaque on your teeth? Parasites. And I'm sure they occasionally die from something that we do, even though we don't mean for them to. As another user said, the snail was pretty much squashed, and I doubt it felt pain for very long, if at all. The life was crushed out of it within seconds. There are worse ways for something to die. That you feel and care are good signs.