How will you live your dash?
I’m currently reading The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware. Bronnie is a carer who guides you through conversations she’s experienced with those in the last stages of their life. She also wraps you in her arms as she shares her journey of discovery and healing.
I haven’t quite finished it yet, so I can’t give away the ending. Though the lessons I take-away from it will likely be different than yours anyway. ☺️ That said, these are the top 5 regrets:
- I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
- I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
- I wish I had let myself be happier
Each of these regrets, no doubt, have many mini-lessons to provide. Each of these regrets may mean something different for you than they do for me. Nor is it ever too soon, or too late, to address them.
Time passes by so fast and we never really know how long we have in this life. I can’t believe it’s August already… we’re more than halfway through another year, closer to Christmas then away from it and once again I’m heading to my annual nutritional sciences conference.
What we do today will genuinely impact tomorrow, one year from now, and certainly the final stages of our life. Trying to “keep up with the Joneses”, fearing a move away from a high-paying job in search of a soul-fulfilling one, working to maintain the status quo but never breaking through to freedom, losing connection and simply “going through the motions” tend to lead down a path no one really wants to go.
These kinds of paths can bring about stress, sickness, unhelpful lifestyle habits, depression, exhaustion, and the list goes on. The ability to live a life full of vitality seems to have disappeared while disease and aging poorly have become the norm.
This bit gave me pause in the book: “I respected the gift of health I was given,” Harry said, “by staying active and not believing some quota of years saying I should be acting this way or that. People make themselves old before their time, you know.”
Health along with our mindset brings a certain amount of freedom as we grow older. Without them, everything is more difficult.
Did you know that chronic degenerative conditions cause 66% of deaths? And that approximately 50% of adults have at least one preventable degenerative disease?! Think about this… 2/3 of healthcare dollars is spent on someone in the last decade of their life. This is becoming the norm!
The thing is… I believe you can change the norm and return to a life full of vitality. Lifestyle choices are your quality-of-life insurance policy… there are no guarantees but I believe we’d all like to be paying for something where we’re more likely to see the benefits.
“I love that I am doing everything in my power to fend off cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease. And even if they do get me, I will have zero regrets around how I tried to avoid it.” ~Jillian Michaels
