One day last summer I woke up in the middle of the night with my heart racing and skipping beats. I thought I might seriously be having a heart attack. That only made matters worse as my anxiety increased along with my heart rate. Most people probably would’ve called an ambulance, but I tried to think rationally about whether or not I really needed medical attention and my intuition told me no. So, I spent the remainder of the night just trying to breathe, relax and work through it. I finally was able to fall asleep and I woke up with a normal heart rhythm. It would be nice if the story ended there.
Unfortunately, over the next 6 months I experienced this abnormal rhythm pretty much on a daily basis. I finally went to specialists, had all kinds of tests, and was told – “nothing is wrong, you have what’s called benign PVC – we don’t really know what causes it, but it’s not life threatening.” Great, I thought, I just have to live with this now? Yup. If you’ve never experienced it, PVCs or premature ventricular contractions can make you feel light-headed, breathless, tired, and anxious. Plus, it’s kind of a distraction when you feel your heart skip a beat, beat 2-3 times quickly in a row or just beat erratically. It took me awhile to “get used to it” and countless hours of research to understand that I really wasn’t going to have a heart attack. But what I really wanted to know was WHY this was happening to me. And that answer couldn’t be found in a medical journal or website.
I believe that physical symptoms manifest only after you’ve been having an emotional or spiritual problem that you haven’t addressed. So I started reading books on medical intuition – low and behold, the place or organ in your body where you’re experiencing the symptom is closely related to the kind of issue you’re having. Heart complications are related to love and fulfillment issues in your life. That didn’t make any sense to me. I had a business I loved that was successful, a great relationship, good friends and family, and a fun, happy life. But did I?
Sure I was stressed out – my business partner and I were having conflicts, my financial situation wasn’t where I wanted it to be, my boyfriend was selling his house and we had 3 weeks to put the entire contents of a 3500 square foot house in storage before we left on a 2-month cross country trip, oh and top of that we were living with his parents for a month – of course I’m stressed out. It must just be anxiety from all that stress.
But I’ve had major stress before that didn’t cause any heart issues. In my late twenties, my father passed away, I had to break off an engagement, and I had to defend my doctoral dissertation twice due to a problem with the statistics, and all of that didn’t create an irregular heart rate. In my early forties, I started a business with my husband at the time, got divorced a few years later, continued to work with him as a business partner, struggled financially to get the business off the ground and maintain two households, and all of that didn’t create any heart issues. Something was very different.
I started to really think about my life. Did I jump out of bed each morning excited to work? No. Was I challenged and motivated each day in my business? No. Was I financially satisfied with what I was earning from the business? No. Did I see my family and friends enough and spend quality, fun time with them? No. Did I focus on my spirituality and personal growth? No. But I have so much more than the average person – who am I to want more? Some people would kill for the opportunities I have. Isn’t what I have enough? Yes. Or so I thought until my heart literally started telling me it wasn’t enough. And if I didn’t make some changes, according to many medical intuitives, the symptoms would get worse…much worse. That was not something I wanted to experience.
I started thinking about what the initial signs were that I should have paid attention to and that hopefully can help anyone reading this to notice and do something about before any physical symptoms manifest.
- You’re bored or unchallenged. This could be in your career, relationship or any area of your life that is important to you. When you’re doing things that don’t align with your purpose or destiny, the first sign you’ll notice is boredom. You don’t awake each day with vigor ready to jump into work at your job or business.
- You’re suffering from analysis paralysis. Do you ever feel like you just don’t have any options? Do you find a reason why any new idea you have just won’t work? We all suffer from this at times in our lives. I’ve spent more hours than I want to admit thinking about all the reasons why I shouldn’t do this or shouldn’t do that to change my situation. I could analyze it for hours. It’s all about fear.
- You’re having anxiety attacks. When your body starts to manifest physical symptoms, it’s really time to pay attention. This is a serious message that you aren’t aligned with your passion and destiny and it’s time to do something about that now.
- You feel frustrated and resentful. I started getting really angry when I would see other people posting on Facebook about how successful their business was, how exciting their life was and just generally how happy and grateful they were. I needed to ask myself in that moment, what was triggering this deep emotion.
- Your gut is telling you that something is wrong. The problem is most of us don’t listen to our intuition. We get these hits of clarity, we “hear” the message in our head, we “feel” that something needs to change…and we promptly dismiss all of it. We have it all – how could anything be wrong?
Begin to create an action plan to step into a life you truly love. Listen to your body. Give yourself time to relax and recharge. Enjoy the journey. And follow your path to living your destiny. For more tips and tools on identifying if you’re not following your destiny and what action steps to take now, visit https://naturalnutmeg.com/category/where-is-dr-di-travel/ and sign up for my Follow Your Destiny blueprint.
Dr. Diane Hayden is the owner and publisher of Natural Nutmeg Magazine, Essential Living Maine Magazine and Nutmeg Creative Media. She is a speaker, writer and workshop facilitator. She holds a B.S. in Marketing from the University of Connecticut, a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Maryland and is an Empowerment Life Coach. For 20 years, her work has focused on inspiring individuals to learn about the power of thought and emotion and how it shapes their lives through adventure travel and personal development workshops. Her passion centers on helping holistic practitioners get to the next level in their business and life by changing thought patterns and belief systems. You can learn more about her online at www.naturalnutmeg.com.