Ignorance is not bliss, it’s often very painful and could lead to premature death. Let me give you my own experience, both in health and finance.

You see, I like many type A Washingtonians, am a recovering “stress-a holic”.   Lately, I’ve relapsed…BIG TIME. Went all the way baby…complete with a couple of trips to the Emergency Room, first time ever for me. Systolic BP as high as 206 Diastolic as high as 131. You read that right…crazy sh*&**!

How could this be possible? Definitely not good for my image as an author, health coach and the Executive Director for Integrative Wellness at a large Oncology Practice! Certainly not very “wellness like”!

After lots of testing, the verdict…runaway stress. I’ve completely stuffed and ignored my own health in the pursuit of “healing others”. You may even be there now, if someone you love dearly has a potentially fatal illness. I forgot what I had learned and written about in my book… the important difference between being a “caregiver” and a “caretaker”. I got so wrapped up in caretaking that it almost took me down with it. After staying up all night, again, with my dying brother in law who was obsessively taking his blood pressure, I took my own to find it 187/131.

I said, “Brother, I don’t know who is going to kick the bucket sooner, you or me, if you don’t stay in the bed and let me get some sleep!”

He was a stubborn guy and married into a stubborn family. You just had to love him. We all loved him and I so desperately wanted a different outcome for him, my twin sister and my nephews. I forgot that it was never in my hands; never my choice.   No one can heal another. Healing Comes From Within. I intuitively knew that when I titled this blog and was living the cancer journey with my own daughter.  May peace be with you my dear brother in law.  You reminded me of the power of the serenity prayer.  God Grant me the Serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.

I was supposed to be in Florida this weekend with my husband visiting my in-laws and decided to stay home and take care of me first. You know, practice what I preach and teach… go to yoga, practice meditation, sit in the sun and read a book.

As written in my book, Savvy Secrets: Seven Steps to Optimal Health, the first step in self-care is to BEGIN. Take an honest personal assessment. The blood pressure scare was a huge wakeup call for me; a call to do something different. Do you know that for 62% of men and 46% of women the first sign of heart disease is a heart attack often leading to sudden death? Yet there are subtle signs and indicators for many years, if we only choose to listen. I feel lucky today to be here and to be given the chance to make different choices.

Soooo, here goes…

This morning, (part of my first step) to take a personal assessment includes taking the bold step to pull my head out of the sand and take personal responsibility for my finances…something I have avoided for far too long.   For the first time in a long time, I’m sitting down to pay my bills early and I see on my AMEX card a charge for BOINGO for $9.95. I’ve noticed this before and even said to myself, “I need to check into this and cancel that”; but have been “too busy” and ignored it anyway.

Incredulous as it sounds, I have been paying this fee since 2010 when I signed up at Chicago O’Hare airport to send out that “urgently important email that just couldn’t wait.” So turns out, I’ve paid over $500 for the use of this hotspot service that I’ve used twice in almost 5 years…OUCH! (If only this were the only example of my mindlessness over money.)

Many times I’ve felt I didn’t have enough time or money to do what I wanted to do. I was too busy working so hard to pay for the big house or my children’s education or something else that seemed vitally important, and then wondered why the resultant migraine. I didn’t know that sometimes less is more. I didn’t know that to be the best mother, daughter, wife, business owner, friend, I needed to prioritize me first. I didn’t fully understand the need to put my oxygen mask on first to be best equipped to care for others.

Now I know, and when I forget, my body lovingly reminds me so.

Savvy, means old and wise. You can find Savvy Secrets: Eat, Think & Thrive, Seven Steps to Optimal Health on Amazon.com If this speaks to you and you read it, thank you; I am honored and would love an honest review.

Carpe Diem & Be Well, my friends.

With Love & Gratitude,

Lisa