Inspiration and Hypertension

My daughter, Krystle Lane (http://thinspirationaljourney.wordpress.com), inspired me to start this blog.  The inspiration came last night as I was reflecting on her current journey to lose weight.  In my reflection, I realized that I, too, was on a journey to a definite goal but had never made it concrete as she has done.  Pondering on this, I further realized that I have an encompassing goal which covered several small goals or objectives.

I had initially decided to blog about my current efforts to lower my blood pressure.  My latest efforts have, so far, been futile.  My blood pressure consistently remains at 150/100 or thereabouts.  This, to me, is frightening, as I know that hypertension can lead to a host of other serious conditions, most notably stroke and heart failure.  I had been diagnosed with hypertension two years ago and have been on medication since.  Sadly, as I have been so busy, there were times that I was not consistent with my medication as well as the lifestyle modifications I committed to make.  During the times I was firm in my commitment to a healthy lifestyle, my blood pressure would go down to around 120/80 which was really good.  This made me complacent, however, and made me think that whenever I needed my blood pressure to go down, I just needed to go about these lifestyle changes.  Other times, I would just go my own merry way. This time around, however, all my lifestyle modifications wouldn’t work and my blood pressure is still up.  I’ve gone on a low-fat, low-salt diet, tried to put in more exercise (nothing too strenuous as I have a bad knee) in the form of yoga and brisk walking, and have gone back to meditating regularly which, in the past, had greatly helped me.  Every morning and evening, when I took my blood pressure reading, the numbers remained the same.  This frustrated me and caused me so much anxiety that I decided I might as well stop taking those regular readings and just went about my own merry way yet again.  I felt it was just causing me additional stress.  But I knew I had to do something about my blood pressure.  I have two daughters and I want to take care of my health for their sakes.  So when my daughter started her blog, it got me into thinking last night that maybe, if I blogged about my quest to bring my blood pressure down, it would be more effective.

Thinking about it  further,  I realized that the lifestyle changes I needed to make and be consistent with are in line with helping to achieve balance–healthy eating, regular exercise, stress reduction and management, adequate sleep, meditation/relaxation/centering, cultivating nurturing relationships… you get the picture.  It was then that I knew that this quest can be the impetus that would finally launch me on my journey to achieve balance and centeredness in my life.    As  Confucius said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”  So….here’s to the first step of my journey!  And you are most welcome to join me!  Cheers!