When Do We SLOW DOWN?

 

WHEN DO WE SLOW DOWN?  In the SMARTPARENTING website, I came across earlier today this shared experience dated 06.25.2025 of a 'runner dad' who had a stroke at the very young age of 33 years old.  As an occupational therapist, he was so conscious of health and fitness to the extent that he went into running and marathons.  Shockingly, this seemingly fit young dad suffered a STROKE right after one of his regular running exercises.  This young dad admitted that he does running every week, boxing every week and even does cross-training twice a week.  In their domestic household, the husband used to be the extrovert handling ALL of the family's needs WHILE the wife was the introvert.  After that STROKE, it was a reversal of roles with the wifey now 'running the show' so to speak [and to his hubby's frustrations]📗📙📘

WHAT this tells us all is that in life, we can prioritize our career, our work, our business and commercial endeavors BUT one priority is often missed by many of us [and I was guilty of that for the longest time NOT until the recent years] and that's our proactive care of our health.  Taking a lift from that smartparenting featured article, allow me to paste EN TOTO the 'hard lessons' learned by the 33 year old [supposedly fit and prim] stroke-hit young dad💥💥💥

• SLEEP IS ESSENTIAL - This young dad used to wake up at 3AM [regardless as to what time he hit the sack the previous night, all because he has to complete his runs and exercise religiously, consistently.  After he got hit with that stroke, he now ensures to sleep at least eight hours each night, even using nasal strips and mouth tape to help in sleep quality
• CHERISH FAMILY & FRIENDS - WHEN we're down [especially if our health gets hit], we will need all the support [NOT just financials] but equally important are the emotional support & words of encouragements💚💛💜

Lastly, this young dad realized how GRIT and SELF-DISCIPLINE really matters.  He had this realization with his life-changing conditions WHERE he had to literally 'RELEARN' things, even movements that he used to do so almost effortlessly BUT for the duration of his recovery, every single step and movement was an ardous torture, not withstanding the fact that the whole recovery process was paintakingly long❎❎❎

Our takeaway:  Seriously, there is NO perfect advice that can guide us as to HOW much and HOW far and HOW fast should our frenetic pace in life should really be.  And WHAT complicates a supposedly simple equation here is that for one WHO could be athletic and even a health buff at that, we need to figure out WHEN to SLOW DOWN even all our physical conditionings and healthy exercises because the challenge here is that the threshold line is NOT even pre-determined to tell us WHEN TO SLOW DOWN😡😡😡