After working in palliative care and nursing homes for more than 20 years, I have had countless private conversations with patients, many of whom confessed their personal feelings and thoughts about the world and their lives. Some of these conversations broached the subject of life regrets, particularly in older patients who were terminally ill.  What I found, was that many of the regrets that they had were shared by other patients – there was a common thread.  While hearing such personal confessions was often profoundly sad at the time, in this article I have shared what have turned out to be the most common life regrets that people have who are about to die.  Perhaps this will serve to help give people who are stuck in certain areas of their life a nudge to take action and make the changes they need.  With that said, here are the top 10 regrets people have on their deathbed.

#10 – “I Wish that I Had Let Myself Be Happier”

This common regret is both sad and confusing because if you won’t let yourself experience happiness in life, then what’s the point?  We all experience happiness from different experiences and different things but when it boils down to it, surely the purpose of life is to be happy – or at least have that as a goal and let happiness in when it comes.

And here’s a side benefit of letting yourself be happy: you subconsciously allow those around you to be happy, rather than resent other people’s happiness.  This regret is very much tied in to other regrets, so keep reading on.