Have you ever been one of those people that thought about death and how it is unavoidable? Most people don’t think about death because they don’t take time to look at their life. When you look at death, though, you often ask questions such as:

• What kind of lessons will I learn about my life when I am dying?
• What do people that are dying think about life?

When people think of dying, they often are regretful of their life. They reflect on their life and wish that there were things that they had done differently. This is a common thing for people when they think about dying.

Some of the things that people regret the most include:

• Wishing that they had lived their true life.
• Wishing they hadn’t worked so hard in life.
• Wishing that they had expressed what they were feeling more.
• Wishing they had been close to family and friends.
• Wishing they were happier.

The regrets that people have about dying are regrets that people that are living often have a. This can cause someone to feel urgent in their being and to look at the nature of their life.

Why Have Regret?

People have regret when they feel that they have failed at being who they are meant to be. Everyone is able to live a happy life and have good values, but not everyone does this.

Some allow fear and society to pressure them to limit what they believe and to not live their best life. When you let things hold you back, you are not being who you are meant to be.

The more you value yourself and your priorities, the less regret you will have.

Kinds of Regret

Regret will happen based on the choices that you make in your life and what makes you who you are.

If you have lived your life based on choices, which everyone has, you will know that you have made millions and millions of choices since your childhood.

Choices come in different categories including:

• Aligned Inaction which are things that you do not do that are part of your real being.
• Aligned Action which are things that you do that are part of your real being.
• Misaligned Inaction which is things you choose not to do that are not aligned with your real being.
• Misaligned Action are things that you choose to do that are no aligned with your real self.

We need to ask ourselves:

• Do the things that I am doing align with the things that I care about most?
• Do not do things that do not align with what you care about.

Aligned Inaction

This is actions you never took to work towards being your real self. You didn’t do these things because things pressured you to be someone else:

• When you limit your beliefs, it causes you to be someone else. If you feel that you don’t deserve something, you often won’t go after it.
• Fear can cause you to have negative hopes and fears and cause you to feel embarrassed at what you do.

Examples:

• Professional inaction includes being afraid of doing a different job or being fearful of pushing yourself.
• Relationship inaction means when you don’t ask someone out because you are afraid, they will reject you.
• Heal inaction means you don’t go to the doctor because you are fearful of what they will find.

Misaligned Action

This is action that you didn’t take because you weren’t reaching for your real self. This is external or internal pressures that cause you not to live your best life.

• Society can pressure you to act a certain way and make you feel guilty when you don’t.
• Behaviors that you condition yourself for such as your values will change over time and so will your habits.
• When you fool yourself or convince yourself to do things that go against your values.

Examples:

• Professional action can mean that you do a job that you are unhappy with but do it because you make good money.
• Relationship action has to do with dating someone even though you are not about that person.
• Health action means you give into your bad habits and do not take care of yourself.

These things can cause you to have many regrets in your life because of your choices.

Avoiding Regrets

There is no way that you can prepare for everything that happens in your life. We all have had things happen fast that we couldn’t control.

Learn to be mindful of what is going on inside of yourself and be more aware of who you are.

When you are self-aware, you learn to look at your decisions and weigh them out. You do not just do things or live your life on auto piolet.

Instead, you choose to look at your experiences and your opportunities and then you act on them accordingly.

Meditation

One of the best ways to be mindful of what you are doing is to meditate. Doing this can help you to be calm in your mind and to understand what you are thinking and why.

When you learn to understand yourself more, you will see who you are, and you will see that your decisions matter. You will consider the things you are doing and align your thoughts with who you really are.

Develop who you are and your understanding and you can do this by journaling your thoughts and feelings. Write down things that you feel challenged about and practice your mindfulness.

When you journal and meditate, it doesn’t make you perfect, but it allows you to grow and change and to figure out what you value most.

Live the way that you can live to not have regrets later.

Past Regrets

Maybe you are choosing to not live a regretful life, but you still have past regrets. These feelings can be ways that you can learn lessons and have a better life.

When you regret decisions, you have made because they didn’t show your true self, you learn to align yourself and understand what you shouldn’t align with.

Nothing is worth holding on and the past is in the past and you have to act in the now. What happened has caused you to change and grow and be who you are now.

Instead of being regretful, use this time to reflect on what happened in your life and to figure out your real purpose:

• What are things you regret?
• What action caused you to feel that way?
• What can you do to be your real self?
• If the same situation comes up, what will you do differently?
• Can you accept the things that happened in your past?
• What has your regret taught you?
• Can you let these things go?

Avoiding Regrets When Dying

Once you understand being regretful, you realize that when you are dying you can avoid these things. You can learn to live your real life and to have more courage.

• Unaligned action and unaligned inaction are types of regret.
• This happens when you let the pressure and expectations of other cause you to make decisions you didn’t want to make.
• You can avoid this by knowing that people have different thoughts and values.

I Wish I Hadn’t Had to Work So Hard

This is an unaligned action and happens when you realize that you let your job lead your life. You can avoid this form happening by letting things go and by allowing your work to be important but not the most important thing in your life.

I Wish I had Expressed How I Felt More

This is an aligned inaction that happens when you have let fear cause you to not live your values. You can avoid this by choosing courage over other things.

I Wish I Had Spent More Time with Family and Friends

This is an aligned inaction and is a type of regret that comes when you have to talk to someone that you haven’t seen or talked to in a while. You can avoid this by putting people in your life first.

I Wish I Had Been Happier

This is an unaligned regret and happens when you don’t allow yourself to be happy. You can focus on living in the now and choosing your desires to be happy.

Living without Regrets

Regret is something that we don’t want to deal with, and it causes you to live a life that is not your best life. Learn to live regret free and be as true to yourself as you can.

When your life is regret free, you will have challenges, but you will learn who you are and be aware of how to make your journey better.