New Year’s resolutions—does anyone take them seriously anymore? Usually, people make New Year’s resolutions with the intent of replacing bad habits with healthier ones: “I will resolve to lose weight” or “I will stop smoking.” For others, it’s a promise to find a life balance—more time for friends and family relationships. “I will spend more time with my kids” or “I will be less of a workaholic and socialize more.” We make these promises to ourselves on New Year’s Eve with positive intent and yet usually they are all but forgotten by the end of January as we slip back into our old familiar habits.
Every year many of us repeat this same “ritual’ with the hopes of changing our ways, but change is hard, it takes daily practice and discipline, and unless you have been handed a “wake-up call” which creates an immediate catalyst for change, the ritual continues without real meaning and our goals slip by for another year.
What are some of these “Wake-Up-Calls?” More often than not, it’s a health crisis of some type; a rush to the emergency room, a scary diagnosis that comes out of nowhere. Whatever the reason, this harsh dose of reality reminds us that our lives and our health are all too precious and can be snatched away from us in a heartbeat.
How do we plan for that? I doubt if many people think about it on New Year’s Eve. Our resolutions tend to be based more on achieving specific goals for ourselves. For many who don’t have any health related issues, it’s easy to be lulled into a false sense of security that something devastating will occur to our health and change everything. I was one of those people. My mother used to tell me, “If you lose your health, you lose everything” and I’ve come to realize how right she was.
I had such a wake up call on December 28, 2005. It had been a very pleasant day spent with my two daughters. Post-Christmas, we were busy preparing for the New Year. It was early evening and my girls were upstairs organizing their rooms and chatting with friends, getting ready to spend some time with their father over New Year. I was taking down our Christmas tree and boxing up the decorations. I remember feeling very relaxed but excited about the prospect of a new year. I was optimistic about 2006 and looking forward to starting a new job as a VP for a Staffing Firm in Newport Beach. My start date was to be January 2, 2006, and since my girls were to spend New Year with their dad, I had planned to take a trip to the Grand Canyon. I wanted to see something that would inspire me on New Year’s Day and remain with me for the rest of the year. What were my New Year’s Resolutions for 2006? Be successful in my new job, and spend free time enjoying the beauty of nature. They were generally vague as usual.
As I was moving assorted Christmas boxes from my living room to my garage, I suddenly felt a weird sensation in my left arm. It felt like a very intense pins and needles sensation in my left arm and for a moment I thought I had hit my elbow or “funny bone.” However the sensation increased and spread very rapidly to the left side of my face, into my chest and all the way down my left leg. I felt my tongue swelling and I was losing the ability to speak; it felt as if someone had attached a fish hook into my left cheek and was pulling that side of my face off. I fell to the floor trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I had never in my entire life experienced anything like this before. In my mind I kept trying to diagnose myself (did I hit my funny bone, my Achilles heel, what weird type of muscle spasm was this?), within two minutes it was all over, the wave of tingling and sharp pins and needles subsided, pulling back like the tide. I just sat on my knees and inhaled some deep breaths, I didn’t understand what had just happened, but after a moment or two I felt just like before … completely fine, except I felt exhausted.
