Hospice Nurse Reveals the Most Common Deathbed Regrets

Unilad / By Niamh Shackleton

They say that your life flashes before your eyes before you die, so how would you feel watching your life back?

Would you be happy with the way you lived your life, or would you have regrets?

If you think you'd have regrets, you're not alone.

Bronnie Ware, a nurse who has spent a large majority of her career working in palliative care, found that there were five common things that people regretted about their lives upon reflection as they approached death.

'I wish I hadn’t dedicated so much of my life to working so hard'

Bronnie, who was a palliative care nurse for eight years, says many expressed their woes of having spent so much of their lives at work.

Apparently men in particular voiced this regret the most, with many being the 'breadwinner' of their house.

Upon reflection, they wished they had spent more time with their loved ones instead.

'I wish I’d lived my life the way I wanted, not how others expected me to behave'

I'm sure a lot of people will empathize with this one.

Bronnie said that many felt they suppressed their true desires in a bid to keep the people around them happy.

One thing in particular that Bronnie noticed is that people regretted not pursuing their personal dreams.

"The only way we can find peace within is to be true to our own calling, our dream and own nature," she writes in her book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying – A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing.

'I regret losing touch with so many of my friends'

As we get older and busier, it's gets harder to maintain friendships. According to a survey published last year, eight percent of responds in the US said they had no close friends in what's being hailed as 'a loneliness epidemic' in America.

But, while it might not seem like it when you've got three kids at home and a busy 9-5 job, friendships are extremely important to achieving a fulfilling life…

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