Avoiding Regret

Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.

~Lao Tzu

February: the month of love. But how often do you take Cupid’s “Love Thyself” arrow to heart?

There’s certainly nothing wrong with demonstrating your love for others on Valentine’s Day. But if we don’t focus on giving love to ourselves as well, we may find it more difficult to love others. Worse, this neglect of self can lead to regrets.

Love yourself enough to envision what you might regret not having said or done, if you were at the end of your life. Start from the end, and work backward. From this perspective, what would you change now?

For more on this topic, check out Bronnie Ware’s thought provoking article, Regrets of the Dying, which discusses the top five regrets she heard from her patients while working in palliative care.