Not sure if you missed this article posted
online recently, so let's review. It listed the five regrets of the dying: Not
that this is what is happening to me, it’s just a fact of life. How I would reply to these are in parentheses, so this list is also my "5 regrets".
Number one: I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
(For me I answered yes-not at dance-just my straight jobs.
I work stressfully to please others and never recognized for it.)
(For me I answered yes-not at dance-just my straight jobs.
I work stressfully to please others and never recognized for it.)
Number two: I wish I had stayed in touch with my
friends.
(YES! I need to contact them more often and that would include visits, too. )
(YES! I need to contact them more often and that would include visits, too. )
Number three: I wish I had let myself be
happier.
(Okay…. I think I’m a pretty darn happy person.
I’m just practical and deny myself of material things I wouldn’t have 10 years ago
but I AM a happy person)
(Okay…. I think I’m a pretty darn happy person.
I’m just practical and deny myself of material things I wouldn’t have 10 years ago
but I AM a happy person)
Number four: I wish I'd had the courage to
express my true self.
(When I'm being my dance self or my reiki self, I am my true self -
but not when I am in my working life, which is most of the time)
(When I'm being my dance self or my reiki self, I am my true self -
but not when I am in my working life, which is most of the time)
And number five: I wish I'd lived a life true to
my dreams, instead of what others expected of me. (I have lived a life true to my
dreams – but I also did what I thought others expected of me the majority of
the time and that was a lot of pressure)
Then the article makes a fascinating leap to a
little-known phenomenon called post-traumatic growth. We've all heard of
post-traumatic stress. But sometimes, when people are faced with a deeply
traumatic experience -- illness, accident, or another brush with death -- they
walk away not diminished, but super-charged by the experience. Suddenly, they
can live a life without fear, focused on what matters most to them.
Now this is where I wish I wake up and land from
having this illness, super-charged by the experience. I recently watched Deepak Chopra’s “The 7
Spiritual Laws of Success” again on DVD. He
says a most amazing thing at the end, “I am an impulse of the universe. I am part of a collective wave of consciousness. After I am gone, I will have come and done
what I came to do and that’s enough.” Agreed.