If we want to live an authentic life, I would say that involves reflection.

And we all have a different idea of what authentic life might mean, what it would look like.

For me, the opposite of an authentic life is a life that concludes

with someone full of regrets, of remorse for that which they didn't do.

So there are a bunch of hospice nurses

that have written articles about the regrets of the dying that they've seen over and over again,

Bonnie Ware, Maggie Callenin, you can just look up if you're interested, regrets to the dying.

And there's, I wish I had pursued what mattered to me,

not what others expected.

This was the most common regret. When we associate with difficult to please people,

we abandon our authentic goals and interests.

As one patient said, the moment you lose your health, it's too late.

Health is a precious freedom that allows us to do things

that few of us realize until it's gone.

The second regret is I wish I didn't work so hard. As people near

death they regret spending their lives on the treadmill of work by simplifying our lifestyle and making smart choices it is possible to not

need the income we believe we need. I'll talk a little bit about more of these. I wish I had the

courage to express my feelings. When people have a tendency to suppress their authentic emotions and feelings as a way to maintain connection with others,

they look back later on in life and feel that their relationships were hollow and not deep and meaningful.

I wish I had stayed in touch with certain friends.

Obviously in life people drift away due to having children or moving away or to different obligations or to petty resentments that we don't forgive or that

they don't forgive.

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