Nurse who recorded 300 final breaths reveals the 7 things that really matter in life

“I was so scared of being poor that I became rich in fear,” he was quoted as saying.

A by-product of his fear was that he never actually got to properly enjoy any of the wealth he had accrued, because he was so scared of losing it.

The art of forgiveness

One woman who Laura was with during her final hours taught her the importance of forgiveness. The woman in question said: “I can’t die angry.”

When her estranged son arrived, she forgave him for an earlier dispute. Her breathing became more restful after that, and she died 30 minutes later.

The best things in life are free

Laura also revealed how one CEO had shared with her his failure to appreciate the beauty of everyday things around him.

“I mistook being busy for being alive,” he said.

The nurse added that most people had fairly common answers to the question of what they missed the most.

“The sound of birds”, “my dog’s breath in the morning”, and “the smell of rain”, were among the answers.

Regrets

Another common theme with people who know they are dying is that they express a regret for the things they didn’t do as opposed to the things they did.

As one person put it rather poignantly for Laura: “I didn’t regret failing—I regretted never auditioning.”

Presence

Being present and truly in the moment is harder than ever with the multitude of distractions on hand in today’s world. That doesn’t mean it’s not important to try and ‘live in the now’ where possible.

“I was always somewhere else—even when I was home,” one dying patient told Laura.

Authenticity

With so much emphasis placed on what other people think and how we should conform to society, it’s not that strange at all that individuals live their lives lacking what they perceive to be authenticity.

For some dying people Laura sat with, pretending to be something other than themselves was a regret they had in common.