๐ Introduction
Many people spend their entire lives chasing success, recognition, money, perfection, and approval from others. Even when they achieve their goals, comparison, insecurity, pressure, and dissatisfaction often continue internally.
This meditation testimonial shares the story of Yong H. P., a homemaker who spent much of her life striving to become โthe best.โ Although her family lived comfortably and she later achieved success as both a psychological counselor and yoga instructor, true peace and satisfaction always felt temporary.
Constant comparison, perfectionism, competition, and hidden inferiority gradually exhausted both her and her family emotionally. Through meditation and deep self-reflection, she eventually realized that her ambition, pride, and need for control were rooted in insecurity and fear.
As she learned to let go of those minds, her relationships, emotions, and perspective on life began to change completely. Together with her husband, she discovered a more peaceful way of living โ one no longer controlled by comparison, pressure, or regret.
This meditation testimonial beautifully illustrates how letting go of perfectionism, inferiority, superiority, and endless desire can lead to genuine happiness, inner peace, emotional freedom, and a life without regret.
๐ฌ Meditation Testimonial: โIf You Want to Live Without Regretโ
By Yong H. P. | Homemaker
From a young age, I always believed I had to be the best.
In my twenties, I worked hard to stand out through my appearance. I believed I needed exceptional ability, financial success, and recognition.
Even though my family lived comfortably, I was never satisfied.
I constantly compared myself to others and felt I had to come out ahead.
I got married at twenty-five, and naturally, I expected my marriage to be perfect as well.
Because I believed I had to be perfect, I expected my husband and children to be perfect too.
๐ฑ Chasing Success, Money, and Recognition
Since my children also had to become โthe best,โ I spent my thirties as an extremely demanding mother.
In my forties, I pursued my own professional identity.
I became a psychological counselor and later a yoga instructor.
The success I had hoped for eventually followed โ recognition, status, and money.
I believed those things would finally make me happy.
But the satisfaction never lasted long.
No matter what I achieved, there were always people who seemed more successful, more talented, or more accomplished than I was.
Even my husband, who outwardly seemed to have no worries, quietly carried deep desires for success, recognition, and wealth.
Those hidden feelings created inferiority within him as well.
Whenever he encountered people who appeared more successful, he would lose confidence.
And in order to overcome those feelings, we pushed ourselves and our family even harder.
Even if our children succeeded in ninety-nine things, we focused only on the one thing they failed at.
๐ A Life Filled with Comparison and Restlessness
We constantly believed we needed more.
More success.
More achievement.
More recognition.
No matter what we already had, it never felt enough.
Looking back now, there could never have been true happiness in that kind of life.
Because we were always searching for happiness outside ourselves.
I often wondered:
โWhy was I born into this world to live like this?โ
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Why do people endlessly compare, compete, envy, and desire?
The more I looked at my own mind, the more exhausted I became.
It felt as though even if I were reborn countless times, I would repeat the exact same patterns.
๐ Discovering Meditation in Belgium
In late 2003, shortly after returning from Belgium where my husband had been working overseas, a close acquaintance gave me a book titled The World Beyond the World.
I became deeply curious:
โWhat does โthe world beyond the worldโ even mean?โ
I stayed up all night reading it.
Then I read it again.
And again.
I probably read it ten times.
Eventually, I decided to begin meditation.
During meditation, I cried often.
Although my husband had worked hard to provide everything for our family, I had constantly looked down on him.
I also judged and looked down on people around me.
Because of my strong pride and competitiveness, I always tried to make everything go according to my standards.
As I reflected on my life, I realized something shocking:
Underneath everything, I was filled with inferiority.
All my perfectionism, ambition, and effort had really been attempts to hide that insecurity.
๐ฟ Letting Go of Perfectionism and Control
As I slowly let go of those minds, I began changing little by little.
I had once been someone who could not tolerate even the smallest imperfection.
I constantly judged everything as right or wrong.
But gradually, I became softer and more peaceful.
My husband also began practicing meditation.
Only one week later, he said to me:
โOnce I let go inside my mind, nothing feels difficult anymore.
Looking back, I realize how much of my life I wasted chasing meaningless things.โ
For the first time in a long while, his face looked genuinely peaceful.
Together, through meditation, we finally understood something important:
What it truly means to live without regret.
And what it truly means to live happily.
As long as we live trapped inside inferiority, superiority, competition, and endless desire, regret is unavoidable.
But nature itself does not compare.
The sky does not envy.
The universe does not judge who is better or worse.
And when we live with that same natural mind โ without constant grasping or comparison โ regret begins to disappear.
๐ธ The Choice That Leads to a Regret-Free Life
Even when I worked as a counselor in the past, I unknowingly carried feelings of superiority.
Outwardly I appeared kind and caring, but deep inside there was pride and the desire to stand above others.
After letting go of those minds, I became much more peaceful.
Instead of trying to position myself above people, I simply felt connected to them.
Looking back now, I realize how many unnecessary rules and rigid standards once controlled my life.
I believed things always had to be done perfectly.
Even the smallest details became sources of stress and judgment.
But in the end, the greatest regret people experience is realizing they spent their precious lives chasing empty things.
If we live seeking what is true, sincerely loving others without selfish expectations, there is no regret left behind.
Many people may say:
โEveryone already knows that.โ
My husband and I once said the same thing.
But now we truly understand something different.
When the mind is emptied, we become one with the peaceful and silent nature of the universe itself.
And only then can we truly live.
That is why, even today, we feel deeply happy.
