Biggest Take Away from 2021: Question your Childhood beliefs of yourself

Biggest take away from this year: don’t let childhood beliefs hold you back! I finally got a proper asthma diagnosis and treatment, and it has changed my life!

Until this year I never told my GP all the symptoms because I put them down to not being fit, not being sporty. And I had a little emergency inhaler after a half hearted exercise induced asthma diagnosis some years back, but it is only effective for 15 min and doesn’t clear the lungs. And in most situations it didn’t help much.

I never even considered that mountain biking kayaking, hiking, Nordic Walking 6-10k each day don’t spell ‘unfit’ because in East Germany in school sport I couldn’t run, bright red in the face even after 60m despite being generally active kid. In our school if you couldn’t do something it was your own fault. You just sucked at xyz. And teachers would let you know, more or less directly.

So when talking to GP about issues I never laid it all out because I self censored the things I believed were my fault.
Now unknowingly I put myself in dangerous situations pushing through my physical pain, brain fog, short breath, blurry vision and forcing my body to perform on low oxygen levels. Because I darn well will make it to the top of that mountain!

Finally, I had a very bad experience on a hike where on top of the mountain I ended up nauseated, dizzy and on the brink of black out. I had to sit down for some time to recover.

My new GP send me to see the asthma nurse, who after a long chat told me I have classic asthma symptoms, and put me on proper treatment.

Fast forward next mountain bike tour and I ended up crying. The difference was unbelievable, I could keep talking during uphill cycle. I had no brain fog, blurred vision, muscle pains, headaches, or heard my heart hammering in my ears not even on the uphill.

I figured I share this learning because someone else might hold childhood beliefs about abilities, character etc that need questioning.
So check yourself. Check the beliefs you hold and question them. They might even have been true at the time, but are they still true now?