Live with No Regrets

"Live with no regrets"

A wish I have for all my clients, colleagues and friends is that they live a life of no regrets. Today however, I am specifically referring to the relationships in your life, including all the relationships in the past that you have unfinished business with. Are there people that caused hurtful feelings? Did you cause pain to someone else? I work with many clients that in their present life are unable to move forward in healthy and positive relationships, because they are continuing to feel the pain of past relationships. They carry the pain with them on a daily basis by constantly bringing it up, or by comparing every person they meet to past experiences. They assume things will always end up with a similar ending and so they subconsciously push them away from the get go. You do not know what tomorrow will bring, so make amends, express your feelings now, and be at peace with the people in your life. It is so important to practice the art of forgiveness, both to others as well as yourself. It will be difficult to move forward if the monkey on your back doesn't go away. You do have a choice to let the past remain in the past if you genuinely want to create a clean slate for the future. You can make the choice to hold your ground and wait for others to apologize first, or you can empower yourself, take the higher road and make a difference here and now. You choose!

ACTION STEPS FOR THE WEEK:

1. Make Amends
Start with yourself first. You need to start with yourself first before expanding to others. Forgive yourself for things in your past that you have held on to, it's time to let it go. To err is human. Look at yourself in the present and make the changes in order to portray your most positive qualities. Forgive the past, you did what you did with the tools you had at the time.

2. Look at your past
Who in the past do you still hold grudges against? Who do you have unresolved issues with? If your life ended tomorrow, who would you regret not talking to? This week write a list of everyone that is causing an emotional drain. Make a commitment to create peace instead of toxicity. You can contact this person and try to have an honest discussion about why things ended the way they did. Hearing their point of view might lead to some closure for you.

3. Say you're sorry and forgive
Contact everyone on your list and commit to bring peace and closure to the relationship. Either take the higher road and apologize(even if you were not in the wrong), or forgive them for their wrong doing. You will relieve a tremendous weight off your shoulders and feel much better. You choose the emotional drain of carrying these negative feelings with you, or you can choose to let it go and move on.