The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing

This book is absolutely amazing look at life and death! Very emotional and empowering journey looking at life from others regrets of their journey! I highly recommend this book It may change your life if you let it !!!!!

The end of a year is a common time to take stock—especially so this year as we embark on a new decade this Wednesday. Depending on your age, you have more or fewer opportunities to make changes and improvements at such a time. Australian author Bronnie Ware worked as a caregiver for the dying, and the people she cared for knew that there would be no new years or decades for them. They had to come to terms with what had happened in their lives that they wished hadn't, or what hadn't happened that they wished had. Ware shares their stories in "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying." Ware realized that many of the same regrets came up over and over from those she cared for. They are: * "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'd stayed in touch with my friends." * "I wish I'd let myself be happier." The elderly that Ware cared for make many recommendations to the reader, including resolving family conflicts to the extent that is possible, taking care of your health so you can live life to the fullest, striking a balance where money and simplicity are concerned, looking at every day as a gift, maintaining a sense of self, and realizing that your life is your own and not someone else's. One affluent woman envied her daughter's having the courage to live the way she wanted to against the opinions of society. Another one of Ware's charges regretted being married to a controlling spouse and not traveling to other regions or countries. The stories in "Top Five Regrets" are moving and the book is well worth reading. It implores the reader, especially young readers, to realize that what you think you will regret when you are young is not what you will eventually come to regret at some point on the road from 25 and 75 and to order your life so that your regrets are fewer when it comes time to die.

This book has so many wonderful insights to share and the writing is gripping and your heartstrings are along for the ride like it or not. I absolutely loved it and was already thinking of all the people I would recommend it to when I got to the really dark chapter about her losing touch with reality and basically planning her own suicide. Honestly it negated a lot of the beautiful things that had been shared prior, and without much insight into WHY she was suddenly so depressed and done with life (lots of vague illusions to a tough past) she mostly comes off as just plain whiny and ungrateful. I nearly put the book down it was so bad. She did seem to redeem her original message in the chapters following, but the book would have been complete and fantastic without her sidebar woah is me tangent of destitution. If I recommend this book now I feel like I have to add the caveat that the reader should skip that chapter. Otherwise I loved the content and the messages passed on.

This book is an incredible read!

The experience is a wonderful one. And I felt deeply pulled into this book. Even intrigued by the authors own experiences and journey to self heal towards the end. But I felt it dragged on a bit longer than it needed to.

The book is amazing. Simply put - I loved it, I just loved it. I am buying two more for a couple of friends from another country. We usually share and compare our opinions on different books, but this one is not available on their country. So - I am buying two and then I will mail them to my friends. I will also most definitely recommend it to my other friends in the US. This is not a book to be saved as an "audiobook". This book is one of those I most pass along to my child (he is only 8 y/o now). And I will read a couple more times before I do that. In the recent years, I have come more in touch with spirituality and this book is full of spiritual knowledge and spiritual understanding. I totally identified myself with the author and the fact that she remembered so many little details about her clients - beautiful! Almost on every page, the author reminded me of the beauty of living a simple life. We, as humans, tend to forget that the simpler our lives, the less pain and more fulfillment and purpose. Let's not forget, that only the egoist and the arrogant believe this life belongs to them... It doesn't. To be alive is a gift. To have the honor of walking this planet is a gift. And this book an amazing reminder of that. Unfortunately, most humans realize the gift only on their last days/minutes here. Thank you Bronnie Ware

Bronnie has written a beautiful book. I shied away from reading this book for years- thinking it would be too painful or morbid. It is anything but. The book weaves the narrative of the regrets the dying in Bronnie’s care expressed seamlessly with Bronnie’s own life and her healing as she navigated these journeys with them. The book also offers us the reader a chance to reflect on our own eulogy as well as an opportunity to truly be present now. Bronnie does all this beautifully without sounding preachy in any way. You feel wrapped in a beautiful quilt and feel as if you are being given another opportunity to assess what is truly important in your life vs just existing. Lovely writing. Bronnie is inspirational herself. And the stories of these amazing individuals who taught her and us so much - humbling. Truly a must read book.

There are a lot of good life insights and reminders in this book. It's one you could read every 6 months to a year or so if you need a reminder as to what is important in life. A lot of it is the author talking about her life and it felt lengthy or repetitive at times, but it's her life story and her book. Overall a good read.

This was truly a life changing read. By far one of the best books I have ever picked up. Sure a couple of the things in the book were obvious or things I had heard before, but I appreciated the different perspectives and the detail provided in those instances. There were so many good points and lessons throughout the whole book, not only from those passing, but also from the authors own life experiences and struggles. This made it even easier to understand the concepts and begin to relate one's own life to some of these frameworks. I also really loved how easy this was to read, the authors style of writing seemed very honest and easy to understand. I'm going to be encouraging the people I love to read this book. I will also be checking out the authors other books. Thank you so much for touching and changing my life Bronnie.

This is definitely a book that everybody should read. Because we all will find ourself in the situations explained in the book and because it carries so much that we all can learn. The book prompts you to stop in the middle of your rush and evaluate what you see as your priorities.

I enjoyed reading this book which is actually a bit more about her personal life, her struggles and considerations about how to live a possible best life physically and mentally. It's a relatively easy read, at some places a bit corny though. All in all, an inspiring, uplifting, honest and heart-warming book which can help a lot of people on their life journey. Well done!

Libro mas que recomendado para la gente que quiera reflexionar sobre la vida, la muerte, y leer una historia apasionante de Bronnie Ware, de su vida, y de sus relatos y experiencias con gente terminal. Definitivamente recomendado.

Illuminante