I can't imagine anyone living a life without regrets. We all have done what we wished we hadn't, and not done what we wish we had. In some sense, regret is a valuable teacher, for we can use it to learn valuable lessons about the consequences of our actions. But excessive regret causes us to be weighed down by the past, just as excessive anxiety causes us to be weighed down by the future. I've found one simple suggestion that allows the lessons of the past to illuminate the present while preventing excessive regret from becoming toxic: be grateful.
It seems to be a law of human nature that the practice of gratitude helps to keep regret for the past from souring your emotions. Without gratitude it's seductively easy to slip into feelings of entitlement, self-pity, depression and other debilitating emotions.
Sometimes gratitude comes naturally, while other times it takes the force of will to bring it to the forefront. Do you enjoy relatively good health? Are you loved by others? Are you fed and safe? Just click over to a news website like CNN.com and you will surely see story after story of people living in danger, privation, pain and despair. Use the reality of the world to kick-start your sense of gratitude for your blessings. Regret generally gets automatically dialed back a few notches when you take this simple step.
Regretful? Be grateful!
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