Regrets and wasted time

It’s always been difficult for me to stop thinking about the past. My memories are the most valuable thing I have; therefore, I spend a lot of time reflecting. I feel like this is beneficial and a burden all at once.

Lately I’ve been struggling with looking back on certain past times and feeling as if I wasted my time, especially with situations that ending up making me unhappy in the end.  But I realized this the other day: When you finally get to a happy place in your life, don’t look back on the past with regret, feeling like you’ve wasted time. You needed that experience to get where you are now.

All of our past experiences have had a role in shaping us into who we are today. I would not be in this state of mind if I didn’t have those past experiences. It’s really hard to not look back on worse times and think, “Wow … I really wasted a lot of time letting myself be unhappy. I could have easily avoided all that heartache.” But it’s so unhealthy to look at it that way, in my opinion.

If you’re struggling with feeling this way, think about what you learned from that experience. You would have never learned those lessons if you didn’t go through it. It was meant to happen, and now that you’ve gone through it you can give yourself the happiness you deserve. You HAVE to be thankful for what you’ve gone through, even if it sucked.

I’m glad that I’ve realized this lately, because it’s been a struggle of mine for a very long time. I’ve never been one to regret much, but lately I’ve been wishing I could go back and change things that I did or said. But I can’t let myself think that way anymore. And at the end of the day, you can’t go back no matter how bad you want to. All you can do is learn from it and appreciate that you can acknowledge the fact that you’re working to better yourself because of it. You’re more capable than you realize.

- Kelsey