Dr. Christy Goodwin

Now, I need to say I was a fit, vaccinated woman with no underlying health issues.

I got very sick with COVID, so sick that I was having uncontrollable seizures alongside COVID.

And one wet Wednesday morning, our great Dane Tommy found me on the floor next to our bed convulsing once again.

Oh.

And I was rushed to a code red ward and hooked up to a ventilator, unable to breathe.

And after extensive medical testing, the only reason that the doctors came up with as to why I was so sick and having these seizures with COVID was that I was burnt out.

And I'd heard the whispers.

I think we all hear the whispers from our body, you know, release the stress valve, you know, slow down, take a break.

But we ignore those whispers.

And I arrogantly, ignorantly thought I could keep hustling and pushing through until

And our bodies keep score.

And so I lay there realizing I'd almost paid the ultimate success tax by sacrificing my physical health in pursuit of success.

And so I was lucky I left that COVID ward.

A lot of other patients did not.

And I made a pledge to myself that I was going to stop working and paying the success tax and start living and working the way that our HOS is designed for us to work.

This is all I often talk about micro habits.

What are small little adjustments that you can make to your everyday life so that you are living the way that we are designed to, living in compatibility with our HOS.

And so one of the key things we have to, I think, disrupt this dominant narrative that stress is bad for us.

The reality is that our brains, our HOS is designed for stress.

stress in short bursts and we're designed to close out the stress cycle.