If you want to make sure you have no regrets and live your life to the fullest, take note of what this nurse discovered after working with elderly people in palliative care.
Bronnie Ware, a nurse from Australia, spent many years caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their life and carried out a study looking into what the number one thing people regret before they die. And the result may surprise you.
She found that it isn’t the big things like not doing that bungee jump or jumping out of a plane like you might expect, but rather regret around how they spent their time.
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She recorded her patients’ ‘lightbulb moments’ in a blog before then compiling them into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.
“When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again,” she said in her blog.
Taking the fifth spot was wishing they had let themselves be happier which Bronnie said was 'surprisingly common'.
In fourth place was wishing they had stayed in touch with friends.
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Wishing they had the courage to express their feelings came in third and in second place was regret over working so hard.
But in the top spot of what people most regretted in life while on their deathbed was wishing they had lived a true life to themselves rather than a life based on what others expected from them.
The study was discussed on TikTok channel Truth Be Told.
“Wow, many had become caught up in their own lives that they let go of the golden friendships, because they got caught up in the whole ‘I’ve got to go to work, I’ve got to make it’… that’s huge,” the host in the video said.
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“They lost time with their loved ones and family members because they got caught up on the hard work, hard work, hard work, that they disconnect from relationships, right?” they added.
Commenting on the clip many users agreed with the findings.
“I quit my corporate job, sold my things. living out of a van traveling,” said one.
“I feel like this is a wakeup call to a lot of people,” said another.
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Another simply wrote: “Enjoy every day, tomorrow isn’t promised.”
Bronnie Ware spent several years caring for dying people in their homes. Her full-length memoir, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, shares further wisdom from dying people and how Bronnie's own life was transformed through this learning. It is available worldwide with translations in 32 languages.
Topics: Health, World News, News
Anna Verdon