When I hear someone say that they have no regrets in their life, I tend to be skeptical. After all, regret, whether major or minor, is part of human nature, a product of our large, complex brains. Prone to ruminate, we often regret past decisions, actions or comments, whether justified or not.
This tendency to live in our past often makes us less happy in the present. Judging ourself through the prism of hindsight, we are not always fair-minded, having buried the context in which past choices were made; neither do we always acknowledge the benefits that arose from those actions. It's one thing to regret having made an insensitive remark and quite another to regret major life decisions.
Unfortunately, we are not always honest or reasonable when we review our past; whether we admit it or not, we all harbor regrets. The real issue, it seems to me, is whether we let those regrets impact our current happiness and relationships.
This tendency to live in our past often makes us less happy in the present. Judging ourself through the prism of hindsight, we are not always fair-minded, having buried the context in which past choices were made; neither do we always acknowledge the benefits that arose from those actions. It's one thing to regret having made an insensitive remark and quite another to regret major life decisions.
Unfortunately, we are not always honest or reasonable when we review our past; whether we admit it or not, we all harbor regrets. The real issue, it seems to me, is whether we let those regrets impact our current happiness and relationships.
