What I learned after almost having a heart attack
Taking it easy while not slowing down
Life comes at you fast.
In the summer of 2024, I was feeling a bit under the weather with what I thought was COVID. I had just finished watching the latest episode of House of the Dragon when I started feeling tired. I decided it was time for a quick power-nap, as it was barely 4 PM.
Once I went to my room, I started sweating profusely. I couldn’t lie down without the perspiration making my shirt stick to my back. About 20 minutes of tossing and turning later, my chest started tightening as if under a vise grip. It was something I had never experienced before in my life.
After a couple of minutes of trying to power through the squeezing pain, I became overly nauseous and had to get up to vomit. Being in my early twenties (and thankful to have an overall clean bill of health), a heart attack was not something I had at the top of my mind.
Until now.
Not wanting to risk it escalating further, I decided to go to the ER and seek medical attention. They told me I was stable and the pain quickly subsided. Thankfully, there was no permanent damage to my heart and (after a couple of days of monitoring and testing), I was discharged with a relatively simple treatment plan.
However, the scare was enough to jolt me awake. After this life-changing medical experience, I settled on the following reflections that I’ll take with me moving forward:
1. Live in the moment
I know, bear with me. Mindfulness and being present are all the rage right now but I believe it’s for a good reason. In today’s hectic, “go-getter” world, we are constantly bombarded with information, requests, messages, questions, etc. that we sometimes forget to simply breathe in and enjoy what we are currently doing, seeing, thinking and who we are doing this with.
This does not mean, however, that we are to simply do nothing, but rather to seek out enjoyment in the mundane. Often, we spend the entire day thinking about what might happen or remembering the past, but the present moment is our most valuable asset. Pardon me if this quote is cliché but I believe Master Oogway has a bit of wisdom that could help us put this feeling to words:
2. Build meaningful relationships
Life hardly prepares you for the challenges that it may bring. However, one thing is for certain: overcoming these trials is much harder when you lack a solid support group to lean on when times get tough.
It is up to us to foster and cherish the relationships that will help us conquer the obstacles that will come in the future. Whether it’s our group of close friends or even our family/partner, we need to make the most out of the time we spend together (especially during the quiet, happy times) to build these relationships and move them forward.
An important thing to note, however, is that it is not about being transactional in your relationships but rather to be present and willing to lend a helping hand without being asked to. That is one of the key drivers behind meaningful relationships (other than the laughs and memories you may share).
So do what you can to promote healthy, loving and warm relationships with those you hold dear. Whether it is simply doing a small favor (like making coffee for them in the morning) or reaching out to say hello every once in a while, fostering relationships like these will ensure we all have a true support group for when times get tough.
3. Follow your passions
Keep in mind that I’m not advocating for simply throwing your whole life away in the hopes of your dream coming true. Doing this without the proper planning and budgeting is a recipe for failure. However, there is always time to start taking calculated steps towards making these dreams a reality.
In my case, I have always wanted to create a newsletter/blog. Now, I won’t quit my day job to blindly pursue this passion, but I can still begin writing every week for fun and to get myself out there. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll be able to look back at this moment and think fondly of when I started this newsletter.
So thank you for reading and I hope you’ll subscribe to keep up with general topics about life, business and other interesting news. I plan on uploading a post once every week moving forward so stay tuned for that!
Feel free to reach out or to leave a comment as well if you resonated with anything I wrote. I’m always happy to hear about others’ experiences!
Stay tuned for next week’s post!
This article is really good as it is an excellent example of both life reality and life advise. It has great ideas of applicable actions in life. Congratulations!
Looking forward to future articles! Very inspirational story… I think we all have those “waking up” moments in our lives that make us stop and think about the things we’re missing out on. Glad you’re ok 👊🏻 Keep on rocking bro!