Achieve fulfilment by banishing regrets

AS a counsellor Suzie Hayman is familiar with the wide range of woes that trouble the human mind. One of the most frequent and universal of these is regret.

“There’ll always be those things we say, like, ‘I wish I’d gone to Barbados on holiday’, or, ’I wish I’d bought that new handbag’,” says Hayman. “But the things that really hang over you are different. You don’t lie on your deathbed and say, ‘I wish I’d bought that handbag!’ But you do say, ’I wish I’d kept that friendship’; ‘I wish I’d spent more time with the people that matter to me’.”

Not spending enough time with loved ones and failing to keep meaningful ties alive certainly seem to top the list of common regrets. Letting opportunities slip through our fingers, and not looking after our health and finances — until it’s too late — are other frequent examples. Such regrets can affect us deeply, on many levels.