Regret is the past asking you to do better now.

Regret has a way of turning into a room we keep revisiting. We replay the conversation, the choice, the moment we didn't speak up. We rewrite the ending a hundred times.

But the river only goes one way.

Here's the most useful thing I've found to do with regret: treat it like a letter from your past self. Not a sentence — a request. You wish you'd been kinder? Be kinder now. You wish you'd spoken up? Speak up next time.

The mountains stay behind you. The lesson travels with you. That's the only part of the past you get to keep.