Shakespeare's Wisdom and the Concept of True Self

**Unlock the Power of Living True to Yourself**

In this enlightening episode, we delve into the profound wisdom of Bronnie Ware's "Top 5 Regrets of the Dying."

Join us as we explore:
- The transformative journey from unfulfilling work to meaningful palliative care.
- The most common regret: not having the courage to live a life true to oneself.

Key Takeaways:
- Embrace bravery and courage in your daily life decisions.
- Understand that character development is more vital than intellect.
- Learn practical tips for combating negative thoughts and fostering positive affirmations.

Tune in now and take control of your destiny—live authentically!

Shakespeare once said, this above all, to thine own self be true, and as night follows day, then thou canst be false to no man. You know, I picked up a book a number of years ago and it and it's entitled the Top 5 Regrets of the Dying' by Bronnie Ware. Let me just read you a little bit about about her. After too many years of unfulfilling work, Bonnie Ware began searching for a job with meaning. Despite having no formal qualifications or experience, she found herself working in palliative care.

Now palliative care is, working with those who are dying. During the time she spent tending to the needs of those who were dying, Bharani's life was transformed. Later, she wrote an Internet blog post about the most common regrets that people she had cared for expressed to her. The post also called the top 5 regrets of the dying gained so much momentum that it was due by more than 3,000,000 readers worldwide in the in its 1st year. At the request of many, Bonnie now shares her own story.

And that's the that's the purpose of the book. And I wanna talk about just bring to your attention the the regret number 1. Now think about this as it relates to your life and who you are in the world of influence in which we we live and trying to please other people anyway, this this is regret number 1. But people would say to her shortly before they passed from this earth, I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not to the life of others not the life of others expected of me. So think about that.

I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not to the life others expected of me. Then one, one individual says, why didn't I just do what I wanted? Why did I let him rule me? Why wasn't I strong enough were the questions I heard regularly. Bonnie said She was so angry with herself for not having found the courage.

So when you talk about courage and bravery, and think and thinking back to that statement, that wise statement by by Shakespeare. This above all to thy known self be true. Then Bonnie says this also in her book, of all the regrets and lessons shared with me as I sat beside their beds, There, the regret of not having lived a life true to themselves was the most common one of all. It was also the one that caused the most frustration as the client's realization came too late. Okay.

So if you're listening to this, you're still alive. You still have time. I would encourage you to ponder the words bravery and courage. Be true to yourself and realize that you are an independent agent unto yourself. You have the freedom to choose that if there are people that have persuaded you into lanes or avenues that you know instinctively or wrong, but you feel that you had to go along or you weren't strong enough to resist them, stand up today, take charge of your life.

You still have time. I also, I wish I had this quote before me. I'm thinking of of and I'm as I'm talking about this, take control of your mental health. Take charge of your thoughts. Learn to confront negative thoughts.

It's called internal dialogue. What you say to yourselves on a continual basis. Writing positive affirmations on a continual basis. Going to war with the negative thoughts inside of you in your mind that constantly are berating you saying you're not good good enough. I love, and this is this is a thought.

Thomas Jefferson and I'm just I don't have the quote before him. Maybe it says something to the effect of, have sworn eternal hostility over every form of tyranny of the human mind. Meaning that this is what I love about Thomas Jefferson even though he had his own struggles in life as you really read some of his his biographies, but, about him. But it it's just be true to yourself. No one's gonna tell me what I'm going to think and what I have to do.

I get to decide for myself. So examine yourself. Examine your life. Examine what it is that you believe. One one of the things that is 100% certain, every single one of us are going to die.

We're going to meet our maker one day. I'm of the opinion that we really do have a creator. I refer to him as my heavenly father, God. And I believe one day, we will come to understand more the purpose of this life, the difficulties that that it presented to us, I believe it's a testing period. It's the only thing that makes sense to me.

Is that as I've spent so much time studying human nature and the struggles of the human soul, I believe the biggest test of life is character development. Character. Learning to live by certain virtues, honesty, integrity, not being swayed too much by money and fame and all of those things that are so fleeting. Because if we're and this is just my persuasion that we're eternal beings, that we're going to live forever. This is just a part of the process that we're going through.

And once we die, that we will continue to exist. I just believe that. I have no way to prove that. Right? No way to disprove it.

No way to prove it. We certainly know that there are forces that are above our capacity to understand right now. But, I just think there has to be a divine purpose for each of us. And, again, character is more important than intellect. There's too much to learn.

Right? If you're pondering, well, what am I gonna do with my life? Where am I gonna focus? If you're gonna be a doctor, well, then you gotta be a doctor. You can't be a doctor and a lawyer and a race car driver and a, you know what I mean?

There's just too many there's too many things to learn in this life. And so we just pick whatever we feel would be useful for us, how we can use our particular talents. And then and then just dive in and and do the best we can to seek excellent in excellence in whatever field we choose, and that's enough. We cannot be everything done here. There's not enough time.

But I did hear a statement once by a religious leader of the same philosophy that life will continue to go on after this life. He says, character and, again, I'm paraphrasing character is higher than intellect because pure character if we are learning the highest qualities of of human nature kind of like Jesus taught patience, kindness, endurance, forgiveness, hard work, all all of all of these things. He says, those things, if we perfect that character, then we're the type of person that can that can learn all of those other things in the eternities. There's time to learn all about physics and how the elements work, quantum physics and and mindfulness and all of those things down here. As Paul said, I think we see through a glass darkly.

We just do the best we can, but following kind of the intuitions and the feelings we have from our heart, also using our rational mind, mind and heart, trying to get both involved. I'll tell you some of the experiences that I have just as an example of how I try to make sense of things. I listen to both sides of the story. And, again, at the time of writing this this podcast, a lot of crazy things going on in in the world right now. People on different sides of an issue left and right, I listen to both sides, and then I pay attention to how I feel.

I try to use my rational mind on on both sides of the story, and then I have a feeling. And there are some that I listen to, and I have a creepy feeling. And there's others that I listen to on their point, and I go, that feels right to me. 1 doesn't feel right, one feels right. And it's pretty common with with different philosophical events on things.

And we're all we're all free to choose. We're all free to choose. So I just, again, ask you to to take a look inside yourself. Remember, Bonnie Bonnie Ware's work, the top regrets of the dying. The first one, I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself and not the life others expected of me.

Back to Shakespeare, this above all to thine own self be true, and as night follows day then thou canst be false to no man. So take a look at yourself. What is it that you believe? Take some time to be quiet, to meditate, to ponder, to write, to journal. And and I'm a man of faith so I would encourage you to pray.

Pray to the divine organizer, creator of the universe. Ask him for guidance and direction and understanding as you find you find answers to the challenges that you face. Yes. They don't come simply most of the time. As I've I've struggled with individuals in therapy who, like, struggle with addiction issues and so forth, many of them have said I have bloodied my knees praying to God for relief and help.

And I would say to just there's purpose in your struggle. K? It's not that God has forsaken you. It's not that he doesn't love you. It's not that he doesn't understand.

From my perspective, he wants you to wrestle and overcome these things. You have the power within you. Yes. There is power from above that can help, but I just I think he wants us to really try to figure things out, to wrestle with things, to have courage in ourselves, to be to be brave and to speak our truth and to make a difference in a positive way, to learn to stand on your own 2 feet. It's kind of like I heard another statement that just popped into my mind.

He said this is from a religious leader, he says, referring to God, he says, all that I have I can give you, but what I am you must become for yourselves. I love that statement. So anyway, I know I've been blabbing on look inside yourself. What is it that you believe? Are they your beliefs or are you living your life in fear of other people in fear of what you think they want you to do?

And I know this is, can be very, very challenging in many regards, but at the end of the day, you know what? You live with yourself. And at the end of the day, every one of us have to look in the mirror. And if you've and there's nobody perfect. Everyone struggles with weaknesses, sins, temptations, struggles, but there's a way out of all that.

First of all, believe in yourself, believe in the capacity that you have to change, Forgive yourself for for weaknesses, sins, shortcomings. Pick yourself up and say today, it's gonna be a new day. Today, I'm moving forward in faith and power. And I'm not going to to focus solely on the past. Remember the mindset of of healthy, what I call mindful warriors, best is yet to come.

I have the capacity to figure things out. I can do it. Healthy sense of humor, 0 victim mentality. And then and this relates to what we're talking about here with regrets of the dying. I wish I had the courage to do the things that I wanted to do.

K. Well, don't be a victim of that anymore. This above all refused to be a victim. And when bad stuff happens in life, challenges, struggles, unfairness, which it happens to all of us, pick yourself up and be courageous and brave and continue to move forward day by day.