This is a guest post by Zen Master Bub In (Peter Taylor, author ZenMister.com)
Living a life of no regrets requires learning to appreciate the present moment. Life is full of choices. We all make mistakes. We all do things we wish we hadn’t. We all wish we had done things that we didn’t do. All of would-haves, could-haves, and should-haves lead to an imagined present that has nothing to do with where we are. To live a life of no regrets, we have to practice accepting where we are, wherever we are.
Accepting and appreciating where we are does not necessarily require us to go to a better place. It requires us to be where we are, as we are. It requires that we acknowledge everything we have ever done as the best we were able to do, as we found our way to this present moment.
Of course we can see that we should have made some different choices. Of course we can see that we made some horrendous mistakes. The fact that we can see those things is evidence of our wisdom in the present. If we can see evidence of our past stupidity, that is evidence of our present wisdom.
To live a life of no regrets, we do not have to jump at every challenge, or opt out of every risky adventure; we simply have to practice finding ourselves in the present moment. If we are suffering in the present moment, we use our wisdom to find out why. If we are happy in the present moment, we appreciate that moment. No regrets.