Moving Forward

From the Everyday Health website … "Think of regret as like looking in the rear view mirror when you're driving. To drive forward well, we often use the rear view mirror; we do need to look backwards. That doesn't mean that we can only look in the rear view mirror. Regret works the same way. It's useful in moving us forward." … –Janet Landman, Ph.D.

Regret, like grief, she says, is transformed by "working it through, which is lingering with it long enough to experience it deeply [both] emotionally and intellectually." And then leaving it behind.

Education, work, marriage, family, getting older, hobbies, faith, daily actions we take and don’t take, words we say and don’t say … so many issues and things we can have regret about. And that is normal. It’s what it means to go through life, because at every juncture, there is a choice. Feel the regret, know it and own it … it’s the only way to get beyond it. That and making different, more enlightened choices can change our future. Let the rearview mirror play its role … but do not allow yourself to be transfixed or paralyzed by it. Because we do indeed need to move forward.