I hope the Recovery Toolkit will be helpful for others, but please remember that I am not a medical professional, and SCA survivors should contact their doctors for medical advice.
A. SCA & Life after SCA
- Sudden Cardiac Arrest:
Learn about Sudden Cardiac Arrest in general, including prevention, causes, and emergency response, and learn about your particular event by speaking with your co-survivor(s), EMS personell, dispatchers, and medical staff. - Post-Arrest Care:
Establish good communication with your care team and learn about ICDs, medication, and treatment. - Challenges for New Survivors:
Learn about the physical, mental, and emotional challenges that are typical for survivors and start working to address these challenges in the context of your family, friends, work, and school. - Connecting with Survivors and Co-Survivors:
Connect with SCA survivors and co-survivors, read about the various SCA and cardiac organizations, learn to tell your story, and find opportunities for service.
B. Body & Soul
- Exercise:
Incorporate exercise into your daily activities or visit the gym for classes or individual workouts. - Nutrition:
Eat healthy, balanced meals with an emphasis on whole-foods and plant-based items. - Sleep:
Create a sleep ritual that helps you relax in the evening, and aim to get 7-9 hours of sleep per night. - Mindfulness:
Develop a practice of meditation, mindfulness activities, yoga, relaxation exercises, or journaling.
C. Relationships & Community
- Family & Friends:
Maintain mutually caring and supportive relationships with family and friends and reach out to new people on a regular basis. - Role Models:
Seek out role models who embody the resilience and habits of mind, body, and spirit that you are trying to develop. - Community:
Participate in community in your work, school, church, and other organizations, both in your community and in the wider world. - Service:
Cultivate empathy and provide care and service to others in your circle of family and friends and in the broader world.
D. Emotions & Feelings
- Acknowledging Feelings:
Acknowledge your feelings by learning to identify, process, and express them in appropriate ways. - Transience:
Notice that your feelings are fleeting, coming and going throughout the day, and thus do not define you. - Positive Emotions:
Cultivate positive emotions by using humor, savoring fun activities, and expressing gratitude. - Negative Emotions:
Manage negative emotions by learning routines for defusing them and calming yourself via breathing and meditation.
E. Thoughts & Perspectives
- Suffering:
Accept that change, suffering, and loss are part of living and focus on how you think about, interpret, and respond to events. - Optimism:
Keep things in perspective, even out the highs and the lows, and develop a sense of realistic optimism. - Paradox:
See the paradoxes in life and acknowledge suffering and joy, loss and gain, grief and gratitude, and vulnerability and strength. - Self-Acceptance:
Be gentle with yourself and nurture self-acceptance and a positive view of your strengths and abilities.
F. Actions & Routines
- Habits:
Establish habits and routines for common daily activities and develop simple rituals for special occasions. - Actions:
Take decisive actions in adverse situations and focus on coping in an active, engaged, and task-focused way. - Goals:
Develop realistic goals for doing new or enjoyable things and move toward them through daily or regular action. - Flexibility:
Maintain flexibility and balance in your life, recognizing that you might need to vary your coping skills in different situations.
G. Learning & Inspiration
- Lifelong Learning:
Pursue lifelong learning through classes or self-study materials to build your knowledge of a particular area or learn something new. - Outdoor Life:
Learn about plants and animals and spend time in nature – near forests, mountains, prairies, deserts, rivers, lakes, and oceans. - Creativity:
Use your creativity to make something with your own hands or your own mind that is related to your career or your hobbies. - The Arts:
Seek out beauty and inspiration in music, literature, film, theater, dance, design, architecture, and the visual arts.
H. Meaning & Purpose
- Purpose:
Connect to a meaning or purpose in your life that is greater than yourself and makes the world a better place. - Values:
Live with integrity and strengthen your moral compass by identifying key values and putting them into action in your life. - Spiritual Practice:
Develop a spiritual practice that includes meditation or prayer, reading of sacred writings, and rituals. - Faith Community
Participate in the shared life of a faith community through worship, prayer, rituals, service to others, and fellowship.