What would you be doing in your life if you were able to start over?  How might your life be different if you had made healthier decisions?  How many of us ask those questions about our life from time to time?  Only then do we realize there are no “take backs” — what is done is done.  Living with the consequences of our decisions comes crashing down on us like a ton of bricks.

So how do we manage the strong emotions which follow?  The anger, frustration, hurt, guilt, or shame for the negative choices we have made.  Yet, also, there are feelings of gratitude; happiness and joy over those choices we made that were healthy.  Isn’t that the rub?  If we were to start over because of our “bad” decisions than we would also be starting over (i.e. losing) our “good” decisions.

Maybe we merely need to process the “bad” and fully appreciate the “good” decisions.  Consider the following:

• Take a few minutes to truly consider your actions and the resultant consequences
• Evaluate the cost to yourself as well as to others based on the consequences of your actions
• If there are amends to make then do so
• Begin a process of forgiveness complete with a full understanding of the lessons learned along with the knowledge of what you will do different when faced with the same or similar situations
• Move on with your life – it is the only one you get as far as we know

We cannot start over we can merely learn to live with our life choices.  Nobody makes the best decision all of the time.  We only hope that our choices are not such that we end up having to make amends.  If we do, however, there is a process to follow and forgiveness to be reached.  You are allowed to learn the lessons.  Thank goodness for that fact.

“Forget what hurt your but never forget what it taught you.” — Anonymous