Physician and psychologist Gabor Maté has gone viral after he made a rather touching admission about his one regret in life and how he would do things differently if he had the chance.

Gabor Maté is a celebrated physician who has spent several decades developing a reputation as one of the most well-respected voices in the field of psychology. His work has tackled issues like addiction, neurodiversity and childhood trauma – earning him several awards in what has been a fruitful career for the Hungarian-born Candian citizen. Now aged 80, Maté has graced social media with some stirring words of wisdom as he explained his one big regret from life thus far.

Gabor Maté goes viral with his one life regret

Speaking to health expert Dr Rangan Chatterjee on his Feel Better Live More podcast, Maté disclosed to the host what he would do if he had the chance to live his life over again and his simple answer was rather revealing: “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard”.

Expanding on his comments, Maté said: “What I wasn’t aware of when I went to medical school and when I was a physician is how driven I was to justify my existence in the world.”

“When you’re driven to work too hard, you actually ignore what matters,” continued Maté. “What matters is what you (Chatterjee) were telling me last night, about how every summer, you take a bunch of weeks away from your podcast and you just spend time enjoying your kids and your wife and your family.”

In a rather depressing admission, Maté confessed: “I didn’t do that. I always felt I had to keep working.”

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How Winnie the Pooh taught an award-winning physician about life

Despite being a celebrated scholar, Maté revealed that he did not come to this conclusion through academic means. Rather, the source of the Canadian’s existential discovery was the beloved children’s book, Winnie the Pooh.

Maté divulged to Chatterjee that the ending of the iconic 1926 Winnie the Pooh book had haunted him for years and that for a long time, he could not finish the children’s story without crying.

@drranganchatterjee
“If I were to choose to live my life over again, I wouldn’t live it in this way.” Gabor Maté This is a clip from my conversation on this week’s ‘Feel Better Live More’ podcast with Gabor Maté. Head to Episode 440 to listen to the FULL episode #feelbetterlivemore #selfhelp #happiness #gabormate
♬ original sound – Dr Rangan Chatterjee

“Christopher Robin has to go to school, and he’s telling his friends, the toy animals, that he won’t be able to play with them so much anymore”, explained Maté.

“And the book ends with the statement: ‘And whatever they do or wherever they go in the Enchanted Forest, a little boy and his bear will always be playing together.’ And that phrase would bring tears to my eyes for years.”

Tying this into his one regret, Maté lamented his poor work-life balance: “People sacrifice their playfulness, their joyfulness, being driven by unconscious needs to validate your existence.”

Capping off his impassioned answer rather poetically, the octogenarian concluded: “Play is so important and joy is so important. In that sense, we can always keep playing in the Enchanted Forrest, and that’s just essential, I think.”

So next time you feel the need to quickly check your emails over the weekend, or feel a looming sense of regret on your day off, remember that you don’t want to make it to 80 regretting the lack of time you spent with your loved ones outside of your workplace.

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