Mental health is a balancing act between remorse and recovery. If you live long enough, you'll have something, and, likely, many things to regret. Health comes from accepting the past, allowing it to impact you, and then moving forward in its light rather than its shadow. As C. S. Lewis could attest, the shadowlands are a harsh environment and result in a dark existence. In extreme cases, the shadowy environs drag to institutional lock-down. In milder cases (and I suspect there are vast numbers of them), the darkness turns us into shadows of ourselves -- a faded image of what we once were; a ghost of what we were intended to be. Grief is natural, and even necessary in order to deal with loss; however, remorse perpetuates the loss into debilitating guilt. For these reasons, and many, many more, grace is the greatest gift a person can receive from God, and, in turn, extend to herself. "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you"(Lewis B. Smedes).
"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."
(Ephesians 4:29 ESV)
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