my aha moment

A typical resting heart beat is 60-100 bmp.  When I was diagnosed with Grave's Disease/Thyroid disease my resting heart rate was 140.  I had been to the doctor and complained of not being able to sleep at night and sweating.  She said you are getting older and you are most likely going through pre menopause.  I was getting ready to turn 40.  About a month later I could not walk across the room without losing my breath.  I literally had to sit down to try to breathe.

One of my yoga teachers made the comment in a class "don't wait for your body to scream at you, pay attention to the whispers." I knew something wasn't right because I didn't feel well.  The whispers of not feeling well.  I went back to my doctor.  I explained that it was hard to breathe especially after doing something physical.  Oh it must be allergies she said. This was in February in the Philadelphia area and I would get headaches before a snow storm but this was the first time I had a difficult time breathing while I was walking or going up a flight of stairs.  She put me on an allergy medication.  I took one pill and didn't sleep for two days.  I felt every heart beat.  It felt like my heart was going to come out of my chest.

"Don't wait for the screams kept going through my mind." I went back to the doctor.  Finally she said let's do some blood work and check your heart rate.  My heart rate was 140 bmp.  She looked at me as if something was wrong and made the comment let's wait for the results to come back.  That afternoon I got a phone call from the doctor's office that I needed to go to the emergency room right away so they could put me on beta blockers to slow my heart rate down and that I needed to find an endocrinologist because my blood work was off the chart.  And the added words of wisdom that left me spell bound - don't do anything that will stress you out.  I arrived at the emergency room and was told that with my 140 bpm heart rate I was borderline heart attack.

I was diagnosed with Grave's Disease and had my thyroid removed in May of 2005.  I will take a pill every day for the rest of my life.

We live in our heads most of the time completely caught up in our thoughts, our worries, our stress, our fantasies about the future.  And yet it is our bodies that carry us every where we need to go in our lives.  Do something that brings you back into your body: yoga, pilates, walking, biking, swimming, trx, cross fit.  Develop a better relationship with your body and don't live in your head so much.  Because your body needs you to pay attention.  It needs you to pay attention to the whispers.  I owe my life to my yoga practice.