cover image No Regrets: A Ten-Step Program for Living in the Present and Leaving the Past Behind

No Regrets: A Ten-Step Program for Living in the Present and Leaving the Past Behind

Hamilton Beazley. John Wiley & Sons, $14.95 (220pp) ISBN 978-0-471-21295-9

A former president of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency applies the principles of AA's 12-Step program to the problems of regret in this comforting and reasonable book.""Those of us who have wrestled with burdensome regrets know that the process of letting go is not as simple as people without burdensome regrets make it sound,"" Beazley explains. His prescription for letting go and moving on takes the form of 10 steps: listing regrets, examining regrets, changing toxic thought patterns, grieving losses, making amends, identifying lessons and gifts, developing compassion, forgiving others, forgiving oneself and living free of regret. Beazley recognizes that""working"" through these steps can be a long and difficult process, and he suggests numerous""spiritual and psychological tools""--such as praying and journal writing--to help readers along their way. There's nothing fundamentally new to Beazley's approach for dealing with the obsessive anger and sorrow that can surround a long-harbored regret; his plan is based on well-known principles in psychology. But readers struggling with these issues will appreciate his measured tone and his many examples of people who have been able to move forward by coming to terms with their past.