This post is the first in what I hope to be an enduring and insightful series: “Words to Live by.” Loose thoughts are constantly flowing through a person’s mind. The beauty and the importance of writing is that it forces someone to focus, and really determine what it is they want to say. Occasionally I have a thought which I’m able to craft into something a little more concise and catchy than the usual flow of scattered ideas. These thoughts stick with me, and become recurring themes in my life. I thought I’d start to share some of these ‘words to live by’ which have become important motto’s to me. This is the first:
I have no regrets, only valuable, new experiences.
To explain this idea, I want to talk briefly about lucid dreaming. Dreaming fascinates me, especially lucid dreaming, which is the act of becoming conscious during your dreams. I’ve been reading through a very interesting book, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, which has a chapter about “the building of dreams.” The book describes two different scenarios for a hypothetical dream. They both place you in a dimly lit city street, where you see a nearby figure, but you can’t make out who it is.
In the first scenario, you think to yourself maybe it’s a criminal who wants to mug me. And sure enough, it is a criminal who wants to mug you!! You run screaming, it is very scary, and you wake up in a sweat. In the second scenario you think Maybe it’s my friend, who was going to meet me to watch a movie. And believe it or not, it is your friend! You have a great time at the movies.
The book explains that in your dreams, your thoughts become the reality. This made me think that it is beneficial to have a totally positive outlook on life, for at the very least, this will ensure you will have good dreams. If you make it your habit to always see the best in every situation, then if nothing else, at least your dreams will be enjoyable. And I’m fairly confident your life will be too.
So in the pursuit of a positive outlook I devised this motto: I have no regrets, only valuable, new experiences. Challenge yourself to apply it. Try to think of nothing as a waste of time, or a failed endeavor. We are constantly learning from everything we do, and there is something of value in every moment we live.
