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In Apr 2009 I was attacked by my own heart. Imagine that!

It is hard to deal with an attacker that resides right inside your chest, and you consider it your “own”. Isn’t it?

But as it turned out, it was me or rather my stupid habits, that had attacked my heart first, and the hearts backfire was actually a desperate attempt to get my attention and request me (quite boldly) to change my lifestyle.

And that is what I did exactly, and now after going through complete medical checkups and the passage of approximately 1.5 years my heart is not beating me anymore. It is simply beating as it should, to keep the blood circulating inside my body in a normal fashion.

I never experienced any angina attack after the one and the only attack I had in Apr 2009. Not even a slight pain. I took my medicine regularly for 6 months and then gradually, with the help of my doctor, I started dropping the meds one by one, and today I am totally off the meds. I hate taking medicine by the way.

I want to share with you the top 10 lifestyle changes that I made to please my beloved heart, without whose constant help and incessant work—day and night, I probably would not be alive to write this post for you today.

TOP 10 LIFESTYLE CHANGES I MADE AFTER MY HEART ATTACK

1. I stopped smoking. That was a big one for me because I had been smoking for almost 25 years, prior to the heart attack. That constricted my arteries and the clot formation later on, blocked two of the sub-arteries. I quit smoking cold turkey and never looked back. By the way, I am proud of my self discipline on this account.
2. I minimized my intake of junk food (which was the other main cause of clot formation, bad cholesterol). Before the heart attack I was taking 80% junk food and 20% home made healthy food. Now the ratio is exactly the opposite.
3. I started exercising at least 3-4 times a week. I play cricket usually or I just go for a walk or a jogging session.
4. I started enjoying life as much as I can with my family, friends and my hobbies like reading, writing and watching good movies.
5. I stopped taking life too seriously. Damn it, I thought, I can die any day, and once I realized that, I was fine with life as it is. Sure I have bad days like everyone else, but I always manage to find a way to calm myself down and loudly tell myself that, “This too, shall pass.”
6. I started practicing meditation more often. That helps me immensely in grounding myself and calming me down and making me look at my life as part of a bigger picture.
7. I uncluttered my life. Emotional un-cluttering helped me the most. The regrets, the anger, the failures, the heartbreaks and the hurts, all had a purpose which they fulfilled. I accepted that moved on.
8. I started focusing on the essentials of life. I let go of all the crappy, useless and thoughtlessly defined life goals and reduced them to the ones that really made me want to get up every morning with a zest for life.
9. I let go of the “what-ifs”. If I wanted to do something I did it. If I didn’t, I stated it clearly. The “what-ifs” are useless time wasters that only suck your life-force. Do what you want to do or change your thinking about what you are doing. You’ll either fail or you’ll succeed and failure is just as much a part of success as anything else because it teaches you about what doesn’t work.
10. I stopped fearing death. That might seem crazy, but I no longer fear death anymore and think, that the only thing that is keeping me alive is my death, and it will keep on protecting me till the final buzzer sounds and it is time for me to move on. So why fear something that is eventually going to happen anyway.

Things do happen for a reason, and any disease you might be suffering from right now, may actually change your way of thinking for the better, for good. So don’t condemn anything but accept it, and learn from it, and most importantly live from your heart.

| Reference/Source: abubakarjamil.com by Abubakar Jamil