Spring Cleaning for the Soul: 7 Ways to Rid Yourself of Regret

Spring is known as the time to clean our houses, to search through closets and rid ourselves of unnecessary items. Likewise, it’s a good time to search through our souls and rid ourselves of unnecessary things we carry around year-after-year within us.

One such weight many of us carry is regret. Studies show regret to be the most common negative feeling humans experience.

In a national survey asking what regrets a typical American experiences, researchers found there are thirteen shared sources of regret with romance being the number one experience, followed by family, education, career, finance, parenting, health, “other,” friends, spirituality, community, leisure, and self.

Some regrets are easier to push aside and move forward from, like the thought that I shouldn’t have worn this dress or these shoes today. Or why did I eat all the cookies?

Other regrets, ones that seem more life-changing, are much harder for individuals to come to terms with further down the road. Because hindsight seems 20/20, we often think we see situations more clearly looking back than when we actually went through them. It’s a type of vision that often leads to deep feelings of regret. Here are 7 ways to rid yourself of regret.