Hospice nurse reveals the most common regret people have on their deathbeds
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@vashtiwhitfield/LPETTET/Getty Images
Motivational speaker Bronnie Ware spent eight years caring for those sadly nearing the end of their lives.
Throughout that time, the now best-selling author claims she discovered how exactly to live a life free from regret, after learning of the most common mistakes dying people think they've made throughout their own lives.
"These days I live free of regrets. Truly free," she claims in her professional biography. "It’s from a blend of compassion for my old self and the mistakes she made (and there were plenty), and not caring a hoot how I am perceived in the world."
As part of her mission, she regularly performs talks, appears on podcasts, and partakes in television interviews, all with the aim of freeing her followers from regret.
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Recently, she appeared on Dr Rangan Chatterjee's popular podcast Feel Better, Live More, where she revealed the most common mistake she observed from her hospice patients, which they told her on their deathbed.
One of the first things Ware recalled people telling her were how they wished they hadn't cared about other people's opinions so much, and done what they wanted to do.
She said: "The dying people I cared for helped me understand how irrelevant the opinions of others are in the end, and my courage has set me free of such cares before my deathbed days arrive. I’ll always be grateful for that.
"I've also learnt how important self-kindness is, which is the opposite of self-judgment and where regrets stem from.
"I spent about eight years looking after dying people, and the most common regret during those eight years was, 'I wish I'd lived a life true to myself, not the live that other people expected of me'," she told listeners.
"It's a pretty powerful one."
Another regret people expressed to her was maintaining connections.
"And then, 'I wish I'd stayed in touch with my friends'", she said when asked about what her patients had confided, before adding that they'd also often tell her 'I wish I'd allowed myself to be happier'.
Also professing on her website, she reemphasised the point: "I repeatedly witnessed the pain and anguish of regrets in dying people.
I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, including you.
"I offer this website and its resources to support you in finding courage, setting yourself free of regrets, and allowing all that your heart wishes for to flow through. Links to these tools are just a little further down this page.
"Being regret-free really is freedom."