LIVE AGAIN! is the book I never intended to write.
On February 14, 2021, I nearly choked to death. The culprit was a piece of steak lodged deep in my trachea.
It’s important to understand that choking is like putting a cork in your respiratory system. Your oxygen supply is cut off, and eventually, everything stops—including your heart.
My daughter’s new boyfriend performed CPR on the spot.
When paramedics arrived I was in a state of nonshockable cardiac arrest and was possibly moments away from being gone for good. The first responders managed to locate and remove the deeply lodged piece of steak and open my airway. Miraculously, my heart rebooted, and I was rushed to the local hospital’s emergency room.
Following an eight-day hospital stay (the first four in the ICU), I was released and actually walked out of the hospital.
This is where things get complicated.
The entire traumatic event is a blackout for me. There’s a three-hour window of nothing. It turns out that, even when you don’t remember a specific incident, your subconscious sometimes recalls everything. It now seems that some part of my brain remembered and kept replaying my struggle over and over again. But I didn’t know or understand this at the time.
I started having terrible nightmares coupled with vivid, violent, and nerve-racking daydreams. My pulse would race over ninety beats per minute—nonstop for days on end.
I was anxious and afraid. I struggled to focus. I also felt constant worry and hopelessness. Everything was hard. Just hard. I truly believed that I was crazy, I was alone, and that no one could possibly understand what I was going through.
Through all of this, I kept wondering, “What’s wrong with me?” Was it a moral or character defect? If I cared enough, if my faith was strong enough, if I tried hard enough, and if my attitude was positive enough, I should be getting better. Right?
I don’t know if I had a single rock-bottom moment. I had dozens of rock bottoms. Finally, roughly six months after the Valentine’s Day Miracle, I reached out for help. By October, I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Fast forward to two years after my Valentine’s Day Miracle. That’s when my pastor asked me to do a live interview about trauma recovery. Until now, most of my acquaintances knew about the choking side of my miracle. But few knew about the mental health challenges that followed.
The interview was in front of a live audience—but it was also recorded and shared afterward.
I was floored by the response.
Person after person reached out to me to thank me. Not because they had been through what I had been through.
They were navigating their own complicated struggles and messy life challenges and my openness helped them realize they weren’t alone.
All of this led to an epiphany. What if I used the lessons of my struggle to help others?
That’s when I asked myself two life-changing questions. (The second question was the most important.)
1. What are the things that have helped me most in my recovery—so far?
2. What are the things that WOULD help me most if I ACTUALLY DID THEM?
The answer to those two questions became my path forward.
They also became a book published three years later titled: LIVE AGAIN! The Road Back from Burnout, Brokenness, and the Battles No One Sees.
Today, with deep gratitude for the everyday heroes who have been a part of my recovery, I’ve made it my personal mission to support people like you who have dedicated their lives to leading, serving, and making a difference. That’s why I wrote LIVE AGAIN!—to share the lessons of my recovery so that you can continue to be the answer to other people’s prayers.
You can order a copy of LIVE AGAIN! HERE. If you have Amazon Prime the book can be in your hands by tomorrow. If you prefer Kindle, you can start reading right now.
I’m also guessing there’s someone else you care about who needs this same reminder. Maybe it’s someone who has made a difference in your life. Give them the gift they didn’t realize they were looking for. Give them a copy of LIVE AGAIN!
Your health and well-being is especially important because I believe something else about you.
There are causes on your heart and people you want to help. That’s who you are. It’s your DNA. Those causes and those people give your life purpose.
Those people NEED YOU. They need your talent, your ideas, your creativity, your compassion, your resolve, and your solutions. They need your faith and your love.
The futures of others depend on you. And that’s just fine—because that’s when you shine.
Are you READY?
It’s not too late for YOU to LIVE AGAIN!
With gratitude,
John Alan
P.S. Please consider giving a rating or writing a review for LIVE AGAIN! on Amazon. Your rating or review helps other people find the book. It also helps service-minded readers who aren’t quite sure what they are looking for.