The Wake-Up Call That Changes Everything Dave Rodriguez sat in his car outside the gym, tears streaming down his face. It wasn’t pain that made him emotional. It was gratitude. Three months earlier, he’d nearly died from pulmonary embolisms, blood clots that had traveled to both lungs. One in three people don’t survive that. Now, for the first time since his health crisis, he was about to walk back into the weight room. What changed...Continue reading...
The Four-Step Framework for Getting 1% Better in Any Area of Life You know your life could be better. Maybe it’s your health, your relationships, your finances, or just the nagging feeling that you’re stuck. But knowing you need to change and actually making it happen are two very different things. Most people stay trapped in the same patterns because they don’t have a clear process for getting unstuck. What if there was a simple,...Continue reading...
The Village That Never Looked Upstream There’s a village beside a river where babies keep floating by. One villager spots the first baby and rushes in to save it. Then another baby appears. And another. Soon the entire village is mobilized around rescue operations, taking care of babies, finding them homes, managing the crisis. It becomes an industry. Everyone has a role. The system runs smoothly. Until someone finally asks: where are these babies coming...Continue reading...
The Chaos I Walked Into I walked into an ICU unit expecting a quiet pastoral visit. What I found was absolute chaos. The man I came to see was on a gurney, head tilted down, blood pressure plummeting. Doctors and nurses surrounded him, shouting orders, machines beeping frantically. They were doing everything they could to keep him alive. Ten feet away, his mother-in-law was on her knees, hands raised, praying in tongues at the top...Continue reading...
The Crisis Behind Closed Doors Picture this: You walk into an ICU unit expecting a quiet conversation, but instead you’re hit with absolute chaos. Doctors and nurses surrounding a dying man. His mother-in-law on her knees praying in tongues at the top of her lungs. His father ten feet away dropping F-bombs and screaming at the medical team. His wife crying, trying to hold everything together. This was Dave Rodriguez’s reality for over 40 years...Continue reading...
Wow! I should have guessed that when I shared my harrowing health experience several weeks ago (blog post here) there would be a lot of response. I was amazed both by the number of people who wrote in reaction but by the depth of their wisdom and honesty. I’ve captured, here, some of their insights. I’m sure you will be as moved as I was. Before I do, an update. I am feeling pretty good…mostly...Continue reading...
Who do I tell? I held my phone in my hand opened to the messages app with my fingers poised to begin typing and I froze for a moment. Who should I reach out to with the news that all was not well with me? Seriously not well. In my last newsletter and blog post, I shared my ordeal of facing down the very sobering diagnosis of a blood clot in my leg and embolisms...Continue reading...
I could not get my breath. I had climbed the stairway into the office complex countless times, but this was the first time I was winded by it. I tried to engage in small talk with the receptionist, but I. could. not. breathe. Strange. Also strange was my throbbing calf muscle, but I was able to pass that off as a strain from the dead-lifts I had done in my workout the day before. I...Continue reading...
“We can not only change our relationship with pain, we can change pain itself.” Sanjay Gupta, M.D., It Doesn’t Have to Hurt That excerpt from Dr. Gupta’s new book got my attention! He elaborated on that claim by adding, “Pain and suffering can present in infinite ways, and yet we have tremendous control in choosing how we’ll respond. There are things we can start doing today -physically, nutritionally, mentally, and behaviorally- that can greatly reduce...Continue reading...
