Self-Made

8Discovering your truthA guide to self-healing and inner work

I was on a flight home with my two kids after a work trip to Los Angeles in 2017 when I felt a pain in my chest. My breathing was irregular, it felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest and I instantly thought I was having a heart attack.

In an effort not to scare my children, I sat there quietly trying to regulate my breathing and wondering what the hell I should do. I was 35 at the time, healthy (or so I thought), a non-smoker and not overweight. This couldn't be a heart attack, I kept telling myself. The longer it lasted, the more confused I became about what was happening to me.

I couldn't control my short, shallow breathing, and my daughter turned to me and asked me what was wrong. She could sense something wasn't right. I told her I wasn't sure, but everything would be fine. After some time, my breathing began to regulate and the heaviness and tightness in my chest started to subside. Later that week I decided to see my GP about it as it had given me a scare and was not something I had experienced before. I started the conversation with my GP with something along the lines of: ‘Recently, on a flight, I felt like I was having a heart attack, however, clearly I wasn’t as here I am and I'm fine.' She was kind, and very aware of what had happened to me. She asked me to explain a typical week in my life. I told her I was a mother of two kids who lived with me full-time, I was a small business owner with a team ...