My Heart Attack Changed 5 Beliefs About My Life… For the Better! (And how they will change your life too!)

My employment has mainly been in Education and I have previously built a career as a leader in some wonderful schools, and for that I am thankful.

However, I have learned that our jobs do not define us, and a sudden and unexpected heart attack really brought that home to me!

Read on to find the true definition of who you really are.

Mid Covid-Lockdown I had a heart attack.  At first, I didn’t even know I was having one.  It started with what I thought were the effects of hay fever, with a tightness in my chest and throat all weekend.  It was only late Sunday evening when my right shoulder began to painfully ache and a feeling of dread overcame me, that I knew something was just not right.  My heightened anxiety was the call to action and within minutes the Paramedics had arrived.  Next thing, I was in hospital with a Junior Doctor letting me know that I was in the throes of a heart attack.

As I lay in the resus unit, I overheard concerned medical staff discuss that things weren’t looking great. To survive the night, I had to be transferred immediately to St Bartholomew’s (St Bart’s) coronary hospital in central London.  It was at this point that I wrote a heartfelt letter of love and thanks to my partner and children.  Strapped up to an ecg monitor and on oxygen, I really thought that this was it.  However, early next morning I was ambulanced to and immediately taken into the operating theatre.  The NHS performed their magic and I cannot thank them enough.

It was a wake-up call of the first degree!  For someone who is young (ish), fit, at a healthy weight, vegetarian and has never smoked, it didn’t make sense.  Later, as I began meeting other heart attack survivors, I discovered although unhealthy dietary and stress-inducing habits can speed your chance of a heart attack, genetics and chance can also deal a seemingly random hand.  Isn’t that what most of life is really about?  Chance events which we can influence but not completely control, such as “Being in the right place at the right time” or “Being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

I have learned that we should choose to appreciate life, the good despite the bad, if we are to increase our quality of life, our good health and our sense of meaning.

These 5 Beliefs From a Heart Attack Survivor will Change your Life for the Better:

1. Relate to people, not things:  Possessing and striving to possess things doesn’t matter, your relationship with other people does.

2. Do your personal best, not a “fake best” to impress others:  Thinking that appearing busy and stressed is effective and shows you are a hard worker is BS.

3. Be positive and constructive:  Bringing attention to a problem rather than offering a solution is a waste of everyone’s energy.

4. Live your own unique life and be proud of yourself:  Criticising others, being jealous or thinking the “Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” reflects a lack of independence and self-esteem.

5. Leading others is being a role-model by example and enabling them to do the same if they choose:  Striving for power and control at the expense of others, to rise above them, is selfish.  It is not admirable and demonstrates low self-esteem and a degree of cruelty.

The 2 Major Lessons I have learned since my heart attack are:

1. Appreciate and seek the positive side of life, and

2. If you don’t have direct control over something or are at least able to influence it, then let it go!  You can only control your thoughts and your reactions to events.

If you would like to change your life for the better, beginning Right Now!  Click Here