I could be stressed out right now, but none of this matters.

And then there are times.

So it's been 14 years since I've experienced death and I remember that the first few years were just like so full of pain.

And then after that there was motivation and inspiration to live my life for the both of us.

And then after that, there was excitement as I was pursuing my dreams and making art.

And then after that, mundane reality set in. Stress and happiness, pettiness, obsession with the material world and not feeling fulfilled.

And ultimately, I feel like we can't really help this because humans adapt and as much as we want to remember that "hey, we're gonna die someday." our brains keep telling us maybe you'll be uploaded into the cloud.

- Anna is that you? - Welcome my friend, don't cry for me.

Though my mortal body perished. I am now one with Mac Os.

Oh my God, you did it, you cheated death.

Indeed I did.

- Anna, play brutal by Olivia Rodrigo. - Hold up, I'm not your freaking bluetooth...

I have this really annoying habit. Whenever anyone complains about like being old on their birthday, I always say,

happy birthday.

No, I feel so old.

- 14. - Ages are a privilege. - No.

Not because I'm trying to be annoying, but mostly because I want to remember that too, you know, not everybody gets to grow older.

And though, yes, aging as a woman in this country and industry is its own hellscape. In terms of being a human being, getting older makes you pretty lucky.

People used to die at 30.

Now The Top Five Regrets of the Dying was a blog post written in 2009 by Bronnie Ware based on her experience giving palliative care.

She eventually expanded her post into a memoir in 2012 because the blog went insanely viral worldwide.

And personally, I like to revisit The Top Five Regrets of the Dying from time to time as a reminder of how I should be steering my life and where I'm potentially going wrong.

So they are:

Regret number one, I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

Regret number two, I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

Regret number three, I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

Regret number four, I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

Regret number five, I wish that I had let myself be happier.

And I've always found the wording of regret number five to be so interesting, right?

I wish that I had let myself be happier.

The dying really acknowledge that happiness is a choice or a feeling that we often don't allow ourselves and why is it so hard to be happy? Why do we resist it so much?

I know that for me, I'm like very worried at the moment.

I am happy or grateful.

Like everything good will just go away which doesn't make any sense at all.

But alas, humans are contradictions.

So which regrets do you feel like would apply to you today if you died?

I'm definitely number two and number five.

And I'm gonna be putting some awareness towards that moving forward.

And if you're wondering if this is still relevant, given that the blog post is over a decade old, a 2018 study reached similar conclusions.

So people were more likely to express ideal-related regrets such as failing to follow their dreams and live up to their full potential.

Now I don't know you or when you're going to die but you will eventually.

So think on these five regrets and how you can avoid them.

I'm Anna Akana, thank you the patrons for supporting today's video, and as always thank you to my daddy, Squarespace for sponsoring today's episode.

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