So, my 1st blog and I want to share with you a book I have just finished.

The Top Five Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware is one of the best books I have read. It was recommended to me by a friend and really did leave me feeling empowered and wanting to take charge.

The book follows Bronnie as a carer in palliative care. At times it was hard reading, particularly as death is so close to my heart at the moment with the illness of my father. However, it made me realise that when you do get to your deathbed you don’t want to have any regrets and you want to find peace.

My particular favourite part was Bronnie’s analogy of muck throwers either self muck throwing or other people throwing muck at you. All this muck starts to weigh you down until you find away to peel it off bit by bit until the light starts to shine through. I likened this analogy to my own life of things getting thrown at me that you can’t do anything about other than control the way you deal with it. You can’t control the behaviour of others but you can control how you deal and react to that behaviour. This alone is making me feel more at peace in that there are ways to deal with things, you just need to find the best way.

Bronnie listened and cared for many clients as they came to the end of their life and she saw some recurring themes of what the dearly departed regretted the most. One of these was “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends”. This also really resonated with me as over the last few years I have lost alot of my close friends through my inability to have children whilst they go on and successfully start their families. Throughout the last few years these tough times have really made me realise which friends are truly strong friendship and therefore are worth every last effort to stay in touch with as I would have a huge regret if I drifted apart from the people that mean alot to me. I also have managed to build new friendships which I know I want to hold onto as I get so much enjoyment from their company.

Don’t be afraid of this book, turn towards it and see what it teaches you.