I'm John...
My Story
One day in January 2018, I went for my daily run.
Shortly after I would become a cardiac arrest survivor.
I'm a writer, brand marketer and creative professional, as well as a husband, father and grandfather.
When your life ends in an instant, there's no guidebook to show you how to build a new one while you live with the effects of anoxic brain injury.
This is why I'm sharing my story of losing my previous life and my journey to build a new one I love. My hope is to help others who are learning to thrive, not just survive.
I Had No Idea I Was Having a Heart Attack. So I Kept Running.
On January 11, 2018, I went for my run, frustrated that I kept having to walk to catch my breath. I’d learn after the fact that I was having a heart attack during that run. I had no chest pain, and no indication that I should be concerned. It was no different from the previous 100 runs. If you had told me I was having a heart attack, I wouldn’t have believed it. I felt fine.
My Journey
Surviving cardiac arrest is miraculous.
Surviving also comes with aftermath.
Here is where I share my transparent journey from surviving to thriving.
Rewire Your Brain Series: Write it Out, On Paper
My speech therapist gave me a strange assignment after brain injury: keep a written log of my day. I didn’t know it would become the thing that rewired how I process my emotions. There’s a saying and principle in the worlds of neurology and psychology: Neurons that fire together, wire together. Writing makes things in our brain fire together. It can change your brain, and change your life. It’s not an overstatement.
Rewire Your Brain Series: Speak Different Words
My neurologists gave me one piece of advice that sounded like fluff until he explained the neuroscience behind it — the words I speak after I fail are literally rewiring my brain, for better or worse.
Rewire Your Brain Series: Endless Possibilities
This is first in a series on rewiring your brain. My neurologist told me that some “roads” my brain previously took to help me function were now closed. They would never reopen. That was bad news. The good news, however difficult to hear, was that I could build new roads, or neural pathways.