It’s easy to beat up on yourself for not responding in the “perfect” way to something someone said or actions someone took that left you too shocked to articulate a response — let alone your best response— in the moment.
You find yourself revisiting the event, carrying that shock at what was done, in addition to carrying around that feeling of l-wish-I-had-thought-to_______.
But the truth is you did what you were able to do in the moment. You did. And now that you’ve spent some time revisiting the moment from your now perspective, know that just because you’d do things differently if you could go back in time, again, doesn’t negate that you did what you were able to do back then. The fact that you can see a different choice now just points to learning.
And, hopefully, to you, that learning feels like growth. And if it does, if you can claim it/ see it as growth, then revisit that feeling of growth every time you’re tempted to revisit the past with, l-wish-I-had-thought-to_______. Cheering. You. On.