How do I stop regretting the career path I didn't take?

Mirabai spent her life choosing devotion over the expected path of a noblewoman. She didn't waste energy arguing with what she'd left behind—she poured herself into what called to her instead. But here's what's often missed: she still felt the weight of it. Grief and devotion lived together in her. Your regret isn't a flaw in your decision-making. It's the sound of a real self mourning a possible self. Both existed. Both mattered. Instead of trying to eliminate the regret, try this: get specific about what that path represented. Was it security? Prestige? Freedom? Creative expression? Often the grief isn't about the job itself—it's about what you imagined that job would have made you feel or become. Once you name that, you can ask: where else can I find this thing? Not the job. The feeling. The identity. The permission. Mirabai's songs weren't written from regret-free happiness. They were written from a woman who'd chosen hard and lived with both the beauty and the cost of that choosing. Start there. Write it down. Sing it, if you can.