Reframing Remorse and Regret

Key points

Past events need not cause us hurt and harm in the present.

Regret and remorse can negatively impact mental health.

Reframing allows us to view past events in a more adaptive way.

As human beings, each of us is at once perfect and a work in progress. As we grow and expand our knowledge and understanding of the world, we sometimes experience setbacks and failures. We sometimes make mistakes. Some of those mistakes, long after we have made them, loom large in our minds and persist in our thoughts, so much so that we are burdened with regret and remorse for the hurt and harm we have caused others.

Defining regret and remorse

Regret is essentially a troublesome and distressing memory of a past event that we view as negative. Regret can relate to actions, choices, situations