Here is why you have to think about what you are thinking. Daily!
“Thoughts are real, physical things that occupy mental real estate. Moment by moment, every day, you are changing the structure of your brain through your thinking. When we hope, it is an activity of the mind that changes the structure of our brain in a positive and normal direction.” ― Caroline Leaf, Switch On Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health
3 Strategies that helped me manage my anxiety and get on with life
What’s my story?
I was born with a congenital heart defect (CHD) called Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF). They fixed me at age 5, but according to recent studies, the surgical repair should be done between 3 to 11 months.
That means I lived 5 years with a heart that had 4 defects. One of the symptoms is “TET spells”. Blue skin, nails, and lips because of the drop of oxygen after crying or feeding. Also called cyanosis.
My parents divorced when I was about 9 years old and we had to move. My father was an alcoholic and on occasion, he would beat my mother.
I had trouble in primary school. Mostly connected to my heart issues and one of them was trouble keeping in my pee. Some difficulty adapting to a new school in a new city and so on.
I joined the Police force in South Africa. This was 1989 and just before Nelson Mandela was released.
Now I’m learning so much more: My understanding is growing
The ideas in my head
I’ve heard it so many times. Worship is not just a song, a tune, a melody.
The idea of worship I had was singing in church. Don’t get me wrong, it is a song in a church, but it is much, much more.I have struggled to fully understand the meaning of worship. Probably the best place to start is by understanding the word “WORSHIP.”
Origins of the word?
I attempted to put it in my own words, but it would have been an injustice, so here is the exact Wikipedia explanation.
The word is derived from the Old English weorþscipe, meaning to venerate “worship, honour shown to an object, which has been etymologised as ‘worthinessor worth-ship’” — to give, at its simplest, worth to something.
It’s too obvious you say. We all know it. But do we really understand it? Spending your time on something is spending your life on it. You only have one here on earth.
The more you do something the more you become it. The first time you start running, you are not called a runner. If you run every second day and keep it up for a few months, people will call you a runner. Later you will receive other tags like “fit”, “in shape”, “healthy”, “full of life” and so on. It all starts with what you spend your time on.
I love my cardiologist. He keeps my heart in rhythm. He is the fixer. His knowledge of my heart and heart rhythm keeps me going. He has insight into what type of medicine will keep me in rhythm.
He has the tools of the trade.
The echocardiogram is also known as ultrasound and it scans the heart and also creates an image of the heart. It looks at heart chambers, movement of the heart, and also the heart valves.
He uses his electrocardiogram to record the electrical signals inside my heart. The stethoscope is used to listen to my heart. Listening for any heart murmurs or such.
Manage your anxiety attacks without medication. Take control!
My Quest.
I was born with a CHD called Tetralogy of Fallot, operated on at 5 years old, parents divorced at about 10 years old, and diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation at 23. Anxiety and panic invaded my life.
Feeling how your heart races too over 200 beats per minute while you just sit messes with your head! You feel life going out of you, it sucks!
I went to a psychologist and psychiatrist. I received therapy, medication for a short while but knew that I could not lead a fulfilling life relying on them for the rest of my life.
The guidance and therapy I received helped me a lot and I believe psychologists and psychiatrists are very important. I used their therapy, guidance, and knowledge to forge my own happiness.
Your thoughts are incredibly powerful. Choose yours wisely.
So you can choose what you think? What a liberating thought.
This sounds so easy and very simple to do. But why do we still submit ourselves to limiting, degrading, small, fearful, anxiety and panic thoughts? Because we do not choose our thoughts wisely?
Do you think thoughts just pop into your mind? Yes, I also think so, but what do you do with them?
Invest in this and you will FEEL the rewards, here’s the deal.
“It is health that is the real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” — Mahatma Gandhi
With a billion dollars you can buy almost anything, ok maybe everything you want. BUT.
You only have one life and one body.
There’s no renting or lending of a body. You only have that one you’re in now. So hang on to it!
“Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.” Dion Boucicault
Unfortunately we sometimes only know our body is biodegradable if we go through some things. You may be one of the lucky ones and instinctively know you have to take care of your body.
When the chips are down, no one is reading your stories, your bank account cries for money, claps, and likes are few and far between, you feel down, or you receive horrible news from the doctor, you need some hope!
All of us have those days.
And that statement just helps nobody! You need some hope! If all of us have some of those days how do only some get through it?
Hope is not an empty word. It has some gravity
While I was chatting to a friend, he went straight to the point and asked. “I remember you also have a heart issue?”
I briefly told my story but not in detail, because I knew that there was some “heart questions “ coming on.
Heart stories are very interesting.
Sometimes you must deal with your physical heart. If the doctor says what’s wrong with your heart, you live with it every day, it’s difficult to change.
But what about your spirit and soul. If we say someone has a strong and courageous heart. Are we talking about their spirit and soul? Or may it also be that we are talking about their hearts and the hope that’s in their hearts?
I don’t want to lose you here, talking all fluffy airy-fairy stuff. But just take note of this.
One of the reasons surgeons were hesitant, long ago, to operate on the heart or transplant the heart is because of this heart-soul-spirit connection.
The heart has a “brain” with 40 000 neurons and can sense, feel, learn and remember. Your heart talks to your brain.
Dr. Paul Pearsall and Dr. Deborah Rozman have talked and wrote about this and how the heart communicates with the brain.
But maybe your heart cannot really think, but I believe it can feel.
What is the symbol for love?……
Why is it a heart?
Faith Hope and love are mentioned in the same sentence in the Bible. They are all these types of “fluffy” difficult to explain concepts. Can it be that hope to some extent is situated in your heart?
A few times I, and many other people have hoped in spite of hopelessness.
There was no clear solution, no guarantee, no escape or hope.