Some Things I Have Learned The Hard Way: Part One

Some Things I Have Learned The Hard Way: Part One

I go to a lot of effort to stay healthy. I am very careful about germs.  I watch what I eat. I exercise regularly, take vitamins and supplements and try to keep my stress levels down. I avoid artificial sweeteners, I don't drink soda, I choose organic when it is financially feasible. I try to use lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. So this kind of thinking made me decide I wanted to grow some of my own vegetables and herbs. I also had been to several Pampered Chef parties and got some really cool things to aid in my preparing of fresh herbs and vegetables, so I was really inspired to start my own organic garden. You can read more about that here: 

I have asthma. It started when I was nine and was very severe when I was a child and teen. It went away by the time I was an adult and came back briefly in my mid twenties when I was pregnant with my son. Thankfully it went away again and when I was 35 I decided to learn to roller blade and loved it and did it as much as I could. One day while doing it on a cold morning it came back, and has been with me ever since. I normally have very few problems because of it.  It flares up rarely, I have to really careful about being around bleach, strong fragrances, smoke and mold or mildew.  I can't exercise out in the cold. I have rescue inhalers that help when needed  and recently had even been able to get off any maintenance medicines.  I had been on them for years, since my husband had to go to CA for the Air Force and I went and visited for a week.  That was one year that they had really bad fires. I ended up really sick after that and almost had pneumonia. That was about five years ago, and long forgotten.

In the process of starting my garden my husband stained some wood planter boxes for me, and then left them in the garage, because it was going to rain.  We didn't realize that that the fumes would get in the house.  I have other posts about all of that, that I will post, but the bottom line is, that before we figured out what it was and what to do, my asthma was really bad. The containers were moved outdoors and I was unable to get my breathing under control since then. I went back on my maintenance medicines and used my rescue inhalers and it just didn't seem to help. In fact I ended up getting really sick.

Instead of slowing down and taking care of myself I pushed through it and continued to do everything I normally do. I actually even ended up putting myself into situations that made me get sicker   

This situation made me realize that the things we do in our business and personal lives really effect each other. Improvements in ourselves and how we see ourselves can effect the way others see us as well.   So feeling better about who you are, makes you a better business person. I believe that everything happens for a reason and that getting knocked on my butt the way I have been these last several weeks, had a lot to teach me.  I definitely have learned a lot. The first thing I have learned, is that my health and well being need to come first, no matter what.