The Human Experience

• Feelings of regret are not just a fact of life, but a powerful catalyst for self-improvement.
• Regret is not dangerous or abnormal. It is healthy and universal, an integral part of being human. Equally important, regret is valuable.
• Feeling regret is part of the human experien...

Don’t whitewash or self-criticize. Instead, practice self-compassion by acknowledging that making mistakes is human.

Also, consider the fact that other people might have gone through a similar experience, and that the event may not taint the rest of your life.

If you don’t want to entrust them to a friend, write about your negative experiences or speak them out loud into a recording device.

Research shows that putting feelings into language helps individuals clarify and process them. If you decide to share your feelings with others, know that p...

Try to self-distance from the experience by pretending you are giving advice to another person who had an identical experience. Or, imagine your future self looking back at your current problems.

Another technique is to pretend you are a neutral expert analyzing your predicament, and then...

The way people deal with feelings of regret determines their ability to turn them into something positive. Trying to suppress the feelings, or endlessly ruminating over them won’t do much good. Instead, you can make feelings of regret work for you by following a three-step process.