In the emergency medical profession, doctors work according to an order of operations. The first priority is to stabilize the patient’s condition, and only then do they undertake more elaborate measures, operating if necessary. This is because without a stable base, without addressing issues like stopping hemorrhaging or providing oxygen or blood transfusions, the operation is more likely to fail. By creating a solid foundation, doctors increase their chances of success and saving lives.

In today’s fast-paced world, everyone is exposed to stress on a daily basis. Whether it’s in the form of our morning commute, pressures at work, the demands of raising a family, sleep deprivation, or even just the overwhelming number of messages and choices that bombard us, stress is here to stay. Unfortunately, we weren’t built to respond to chronic stress.

5 years ago, I was under a lot of stress and I was constantly coughing and had problems breathing. I thought I had a cold or some virus. Went I went to the hospital, they took an X ray and found that my heart was so enlarged it was almost the size of one of my lungs. My stress hormones were also elevated – they found high levels of cortisol in my blood. I discovered that I was born with cardiomyopathy (a disease that involves the weakening and inflammation of the heart). The doctors installed a defibrillator, as a protection in case my heart stops beating, to shock it back to life.