Finding a new Bohemia
Escape to Devon is an excellent idea.
I got hit by my past, not part of today's plans, but it was there. Regret is a person's second most experienced emotion apparently.
So I escaped from Bohemia to what seems on the surface a more pedestrian Devon. I moved from a city full of diverse and immersive culture to something else. A life more easy on the soul. Whatever a soul is? I think if I had stayed in my city I would have sunk.
The thing that sometimes gets absolutely everyone is regret. Every practitioner of Buddhism regrets sometimes. However in Buddhist practice we think that nothing we experience is wasted. Nothing is out of our power to change. So nobody should live stuck in the past. If you do not like yourself even half an hour ago, you can change things now. No one says it is going to be easy, but without your past you are not you. Anyone can create value from their past.
Instead of being imprisoned by the past, by transforming our mind-set, or deep-seated resolve, we can change the meaning of our past; through our actions, we can create value and open the way to a new life starting from this present moment.
Daisaku Ikeda
If you, or anyone you know is stuck in a cycle of regret you can grow and start from this moment forward. It's not always easy, but as a Cancer survivor I know that and you move forward with a lions roar.