Two widowmaker heart attacks. A 1.44% survival math problem. And a life that couldn’t go back to “normal” even if it tried. We sit down with AJ Jones, a high-achiever turned near-death survivor, to talk about what happens when your body delivers the message your mind keeps delaying. If you’ve been living with fear, doubt, worry, or a quiet sense that your work no longer fits, this conversation gets uncomfortably real in the best way.
AJ walks us through the first heart attack that hit on a mountain bike climb, the terrifying moment he learned his LAD artery was 100% blocked, and the months afterward spent staring at the ceiling asking why he lived. That survival story opens into heart disease prevention, burnout recovery, and a bigger question: how do you use a second chance with integrity instead of slipping back into familiar patterns? We also explore AJ’s adoptee journey and why finding his biological family wasn’t just about medical answers, but about identity, healing, and telling the truth about who you are.
After a second widowmaker, a cardiologist’s advice to retire, and a deep season of anxiety and misalignment, AJ rebuilds around career wellness and authentic alignment. We talk faith, listening for guidance, writing as a tool for healing, and the practical shift from chasing achievement to choosing a life that supports your health and your purpose.
Listen now, then share this with someone who’s pushing too hard. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what’s one change you know you need to make next?
To connect with or work with AJ visit his website: https://www.bemorealigned.com, or email him at hello@bemorealigned.com
To download a free chapter of host Sylvia Worsham’s bestselling book, In Faith, I Thrive: Finding Joy Through God’s Masterplan, purchase any of her products, or book a call with her, visit her website at www.sylviaworsham.com
Transcript:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear, doubt, or worry and wondering what your true purpose was all about, then this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, Sylvia Warsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, Sylvia Warsham.
Hey high bringers, it’s Sylvia Warsham. Welcome to Release Top Review Purpose. And today’s Adrian AJ Jones. And why the distinction there is for years in the first act of his life in business world, AJ was known as Adrian because in his mind it’s like, well, that doesn’t sound very professional if I don’t go by Adrian. And after being in business for several years and pushing his body to the point of burnout, um, he faced two different turning points, two major ones, two near-death experiences. Someone like me, I know what that’s like because I too, in my first act, pushed myself to a point of burnout. My body gave out. I faced an 80% chance of death. And by three miracles in 72 hours, I’m sitting in front of you today speaking to you, AJ. So without further ado, thank you so much for joining us on Released Out Reveal Purpose.
Uh Sylvia, thank you for having me. I’m super excited for our conversation and to dig into some really cool stuff. Can’t wait. Thanks for having me.
I as you said that, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, and I know he’s in the room. And so it’s like, oh yeah, this is gonna be a fun conversation to have because both of us survived near-death experiences. Now, uh, in the clinical term of near-death, we know some people actually died. I don’t know if you actually died on the table. I didn’t, but I did face um a complication, a medical complication that put me um in a percentage that the doctors were just not confident I was going to survive the night. I was in the medical center at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas. And I had walked in, unassisted to the hospital with two large pulmonary embolisms that I had passed the night before that did not stop my heart, and they landed in my left lung, and I was infiltrated. I had embolites everywhere, but I also have had a massive blood clot in my vena cava that was putting pressure on my liver, and I was about to go into acute liver failure and require a transplant. So I was facing a really death straight in the face. Uh, and like you, you had two, not one, but two middlemakers. So kind of guided us through that amazing story of transformation that landed you in the spot that you’re in today.
Yeah. Uh well, thank you for that. And yes, that that is true. And basic math for me is um it’s working knowledge that to survive a widowmaker heart attack outside of the hospital, your chances of survival are very low. Excuse me. Of course I have to cough when I start talking. Um call it 12%. Uh, I’ve done that twice. So my simple math is 12% times 12% is 1.44% uh chance of being here today talking to you. That’s the basic math. Um, yes. So I just to draw a picture and to provide some context to your listeners, uh, from many, many, I’m a native Californian, uh, was born uh just north of San Francisco in a place called Marin County, just over the Golden Gate Bridge. Uh always, uh even though I grew up in Colorado when dad took a job there, that’s where my formative years were. I went back to California for college and never left until very, very recently, earlier this year. I was um by a professional standard an achiever. Um and I was in financial services for most of my career. After undergraduate, my first corporate job, and you’re spot on. I’ve been known as AJ my whole life. My parents, my friends, my family, those that know me on a very personal level, know me as AJ. When I started my corporate career, financial services on the sales desk of a mutual fund company, I didn’t feel right uh introducing myself to that world as AJ. I felt like I had to go by my given name of Adrian Jones, which is fine. I go by both, no problem. Um, but that’s how I wanted to show up. So I was in financial services, got my MBA at UCLA, did some management consulting at Deloitte. Uh that wasn’t for me, the travel and went into industry uh with Wells Fargo, then BlackRock, then Schwab. My wife and I had two children. Um we they were born in San Francisco in 2006. We moved up to Marin County, where there were better schools, better weather, uh, uh a way of life that really suited us. But to do that, I had to commute three hours a day, uh, one and a half hours each way, in and out of San Francisco. It was a beautiful commute on a ferry, 35-minute ferry across the bay every day, twice a day, actually. Um, but it took time. And for the longest time, I never even did the math on how much time I was spending doing it. It was just what one did. To get very specific in answering your question now with that background, on October 8th, 2016, a quintessentially beautiful fall day in Marin County. It’s very hilly if you don’t know the region. Um, and it is actually the birthplace of mountain biking. Uh well, fun fact, and for anyone who gets that trivia question along the way. So there’s an abundance of trails, fire trails, single track trails for hiking, horseback riding, mountain biking. We were going up an ascent uh up the side of a mountain called Mount Tamil Pius, or known as Mount Tam in that area, when um I had my first widowmaker. Now I didn’t know what was happening um when it hit. To me, it felt like a sudden loss of strength in my legs as we were climbing up this pitch. Uh, I became extraordinarily nauseous, vomiting all over the place. Um, I became extremely lightheaded and dizzy. Uh we kept riding and climbing. Um, my friends knew something was wrong, but no one could, we none of us knew. I thought I had food poisoning, and that’s how I kept framing it with my friends. I have food poison. I had sushi the night before with my daughter, you know, uh a dad-daughter date. And um, I thought that I might have had uh you know sashimi with a side of bacteria, right? And this was food poisoning. I’d drawn the short straw, and it’s my turn to deal with food poisoning from raw fish. That was my narrative. Um, in reality, it was much more grave than that. Uh the pain set in in my chest. In fact, I had to get off my bike and I lay spread eagle across the dusty, dirty fire trail and just started peating my chest with my fists, not knowing what was wrong with me. Um, I was, I guess you’d call me like King Kong on the ground there, just wailing at my chest, hoping to force this pain out of my chest in a burp or something like that, but never, never evacuated. So I got back on my bike, caught up with my friends, and eventually we walked down the trail, 40 minutes walking to the um trailhead where my friend had a car, and he drove me about four miles to the local hospital. I’m very lucky to be here. Uh, you don’t survive a widowmaker heart attack. When I got on the operating table, my um that artery, the left anterior descending artery, the L A D A K E the Widowmaker, was 100% blocked on the table. So uh it was bad news. I wasn’t far off from really bad things happening to me, um, maybe tragically so. I didn’t flatline, I didn’t die, but I think I was very close. We can explore that if you’d like. But that was the first big transition moment for me, as you might imagine. You survive a widow maker, like things gotta change. Well, I’ll be honest with you, my change happened in a pretty interesting way. I uh was put on leave for four months. Uh, I was at Schwab at the time. They were very, very good to me, uh, very grateful for how they handled things. And after I got uh out of the hospital, I would lay in bed for those first couple of weeks, just staring at the bedroom ceiling, wonder why I survived. Like you don’t survive a widowmaker on a mountain bike trail and live to tell the tale. Um, what do I do with this precious second chance in life? Do I go back to my old job and commuting three hours a day to kind of stressful corporate America? Or do I do something different? Maybe become a stay-at-home dad or resign and go do something to get back to the greater good, whatever form that take would take. I had no clue. And I begged for the universe to answer this question for me. I just asked, give me a sign. Anything. Um, and whatever anyone’s belief system is, I call it my voice of God moment. I heard, use your story to help it inspire others. And for me, it was like a lightning bolt hit me in my soul. I knew exactly that’s what I had to do. I didn’t have any idea what form that would take at all. Uh, but I would get there one way or another. This was my new life’s mission, and I was all in. Um, except I didn’t know how to get there. So that was the first stage of what would be a multi-year metamorphosis uh for me. Um, what happened after that is I went back to work at Schwab in that commute. I lasted five months before I was like, I can’t do this anymore. Nothing against where I worked or my employer. It was just this all felt so not me anymore, even though that career had been very good. I was making very good money with all sorts of cashes and prizes and benefits that go with you know the role that I had. Um, but it just didn’t fit with me. It didn’t make any sense anymore. And so I resigned. And again, they were very good to me, a very good, good relationship on the way out. And as I left, a friend found out I was a free agent and he did something very generous, uh, very kind offer. He said, Hey Jones, so there’s another nickname for me, my last name. Hey Jones, I hear you’re a free agent. You want to come join my team? Because I know you’ve got a lot to figure out in your life, but I could use your help for the next year or maybe longer. Let’s see how it goes. I said, Why not? Let’s go. So I did that. It was in wealth management for a small, well, small team size. It’s grown to quite a big firm now. Uh, company with an office that’s right by my house. And I joined his firm, and then I tried to figure out how I could work on this new life mission. And so I started to blog anonymously about heart disease prevention and awareness. Like, if I can just help someone avoid what I went through, I’m gonna tell that story from every mountaintop and from any podcast I can get on at any stage I can get on, I’m gonna tell that story. The other thing I wanted to talk about is I’m an adopte-e. And as a result of that first heart attack, I decided once and for all, at the age of 47, I was gonna go find my biological family to get answers. All sorts of answers. Sure, the medical ones, I’m sure your listeners are wondering, for sure, why did this heart attack happen? I was a fit guy, I’m not overweight, I don’t smoke, whatever. Why’d this happen? But also answers for my soul. How did I come to be? Um, why was I relinquished for adoption? What happened there? So I I bumped into a genetic genealogist randomly at a party, and she helped me find my biological family. So in the era of 2017, 2018, when the um genetic um DNA companies like Ancestry and 23andMe were exploding and everybody was doing DNA tests, and people were coming up with all sorts of genetic surprises in their families. I thought I could lend an ear to that process or a story to that process to help people navigate as an adoptee going through reunion. Maybe there’s something I could help people with, which was ultimately both those two things, the heart disease prevention awareness and adoptee advocacy, if you will, was leading me to something that hadn’t crystallized in my brain yet. And that was around living your authentic truth. Um, that would come much later. So I was muddling along in wealth management and figuring out how I could bring these topics to help people through podcasting, being a guest on podcasts for getting onto stages, uh, writing a blog anonymously uh as I started because I was in a very regulated industry, and uh you have to be very careful what you put in the public domain uh if you’re in elements of financial services. Ultimately, um, Sylvia, that led me to starting my own podcast during COVID. Like so many other people, I went on Amazon and bought a mic and watched a few YouTube videos about how to podcast. And I started one called Profound Awesomeness. And um really what I wanted to tell was stories: the tragedy to triumph, the calamity to conquering, the breakdown to breakthrough, however you want to say it. If I could share these stories with no call to action to me or to any other platform, but just here’s a story to listen to. What do you get from it? How did this person find their level of profound awesomeness, this flow state after they’ve been through something so horrific and trying, whether it was paralysis after an accident, or had one guest who was uh uh held hostage by the Maduro regime in Venezuela, uh fascinating story, Jose Perea. Um just tell these stories and see what happens, and hopefully they find the ears that need to hear them. I was still in wealth management and really struggling. Inside, I was a mess. I um when I resigned from Schwab, I had a plan to just launch myself. I call it a trustfall with the universe, into this world of helping and inspiring others. But I’d kind of fallen into some old patterns and behaviors. I went, I had my friend had offered me a job in wealth management, and it was a nice paycheck. I could do things, I knew the industry, I knew how to get things done. I was doing these soul-level passion projects on the side that I’ve just discussed. But with time in the 2021-2022 era, I was struggling. I had was driven by, I don’t say driven by making money. My wife had lost her job with COVID. She’s an event planner and no one was doing conferences or events. So I had to carry the weight of bringing, you know, putting food on the table. Um, but I was put in a role that was not aligned with who I am uh in a very stressful way. And I just honestly, as vulnerable as I can say it, I was a mess. I was struggling inside. Um, I felt the pull of what I wanted to do, this higher calling, but I felt my my tree roots and trunk were firmly embedded in the world of financial services and making money. Uh, and it caused incredible um emotional dysfunction within me. I had to see a therapist, I had to take on any anxiety medication, I developed random waves of nausea. It was bad. It was really bad. And I I was not in a good place at all. And with a lot of conversations with uh my then therapist and my wife, it’s like it’s time for me to go where my heart is truly calling me and no more ignoring it anymore, or or where this higher power is leading me, just surrender to it and let it happen and don’t fight it like I might have been doing by staying in the world I knew in financial services. And in 2023, I did the ultimate trust fall with the universe and launched myself into this space. And I started a company called More, M-O-R-E, with the with the premise as a survivor and someone who’s an adoptee who’s found his truth and had so many holes in his soul filled by that whole journey. I felt like I had um a way to help people get more out of life. And that would be the meta-goal. And we would deliver it through a community-based platform. And so we launched that last year. And it would the product would be community. We’d offer career coaching and some retreats uh into some really cool places because that’s what I want to do is go to cool places. Um, if we could build this business to do this and help a ton of people on the way, let’s go. So we launched it last year, uh very soft launch, almost on a pilot basis. Um, and that was January of last year, April 13th, what, three and a half months later. Um, our kids were at college, my wife was out running errands. This was a Saturday. I went to the gym like a good little heart survivor, just trying to keep fit and keep my heart work going. I came home to an empty house, stepped in the shower, got shampoo in my hair, when I felt a very terrifying but familiar pain in my chest. And I knew right away what was happening. I couldn’t believe it. By the time I got out of the shower, I could no longer really control my hands. Um, my that tactile function was was fading from me. Um, I was able to towel off and somehow get some clothes on. I called my wife, Liz, and told her what was happening. And she screamed at me, Yeah, get off the phone and call 911. I’m like, yeah, oh yeah, I should do that. Called 911 three minutes and 40 seconds later. I know this because I got my 911 call from the the local sheriff’s department. I did a FOIA request. Um the ambulance arrived and they started to treat me on my front porch. Then the paramedics came and they got me in the cabin of the ambulance and they called in a code three. And if you know anything about the medical calls, code one, code two, code three, code three is whether it’s police, fire, or medical, it’s like it’s going down. It’s bad news. Uh, in the medical sense, it’s a life-threatening situation. So when that paramedic in the cabin with me, I had an EKG on my chest who’s reading the EKG monitor, he called in a code three to the hospital, like clear the decks, prepare emergency room. Um, this is an emergency major emergency. Uh, it was a very real moment for me. And it was the longest three and a half mile drive to the hospital you could possibly imagine, with lights and sirens and blaring through the intersections and the honking horns and cars that wouldn’t move quickly enough, all the things. And once again, when I got to the operating table, that same darn artery was 100% blocked. I can’t believe it. And uh wow, yeah, I didn’t flatline again, uh, defibrillators on the chest, all the things, but didn’t didn’t go there, thankfully. And I came out of that, and my cardiologist told me to retire. He said, you know, Adrian, um, you’ve had two of these. I’ve been working with you for years. The fact pattern is there. It is my job as your clinician to tell you that I think you should retire. And I was that hit hard. It was really hard to hear, and I thought, nah, what are you talking about? Like I asked him, is this a get your affairs in order thing? Like, I’ve had two of these, like, life, my life is short. I got a couple years left. I better go live it in a special way. And he said, No, your prognosis is good, but it’s time for you to take care of yourself. And I thought, well, I can’t retire. No way. I have unfinished business. Like, I just started this company that I’m extraordinarily passionate about. I’ve gone on a limb, I’ve cashed in my career and and moved into a whole new world that I’m learning and I’m very excited about. I can’t give this up, but I think I can make changes in my life to honor and be responsible to my health and also be in a position through more to be able to help as many people as possible. So, anyways, bringing it all home, and I know I’ve rambled on here, but I um decided what I would do is I would write a book, uh part memoir and part my take on authenticity and its importance. From that book was born the methodology. We use it more. It’s a six-pillar methodology. Uh, the book is coming out next year, uh, March April time frame. Uh hopefully more March than April, but we’ll see. And um I relaunched more in this whole notion of serving people at career wellness at that crossroads and aligning careers to life. Um, and so that’s that’s where we are, more careerwellness.com. And that’s my story. And it’s been um quite a transformation from you know the the corporate go-getter, you know, the the the accomplisher, the high achiever, whatever you want to say, to kind of surrendering to this calling and following where it takes me. Um with and not severing from that path. I’m committed, so committed, as we were talking before we kicked off the show, that um in order for us to redesign our lives, as me and my wife, like I wasn’t ready to retire, but um, I want to do this more and build it in a responsible way, that’s the right way for me and but with my cardiac disabilities and challenges. But we can de-stress our lives considerably by leaving the Greater Bay Area and moving to uh lower cost of living market that’s a bit slower paced, and so now we find ourselves in coastal North Carolina, right by the water and the ocean, and and um it’s very different, and and it’s so far it’s working. So that’s my story.
Well, let’s try to unpack this, shall we?
Let’s go.
So many moments where I felt the Holy Spirit as you were speaking.
Yeah.
One thing that he wants you to know is you’re here for a purpose. You were given two second chances, not second, third chances at life. And there’s a very powerful reason why that is. Your purpose is here to help other people, especially people men unfortunately push themselves to a point where one you you see the the pattern, you called your wife first and said. nine one one first that kind of gives you an idea of what a protector and a provider does. And I think when men are from that perspective will push themselves so hard because the first go around should have been your big moment to shift gears, but didn’t. Why do you think that was?
Oh I I you know I don’t think I’m alone in that either. Um I think for a lot of people who go through something similar be it you know heart attack or surviving cancer or whatever it is we go back to familiar patterns. Um we’re afraid of the change that can be out there. It’s fear. It’s very fear-based and we stick with familiarity. So even though I I did the gutsy move and and resigned from a great role at Schwab um what is the expression? I I jumped out of the frying pan but not away from the fire. And I didn’t jump far enough. I thought I was making changes by doing passion projects on nights and weekends the blogging the public speaking the podcasting what name what whatever it is but um I was still making money in the wealth management world at this point. And it felt familiar to me and I wasn’t totally ready yet to go where my calling was taking me. And I and I don’t think that that I that I’m alone. And for those who are listening to this uh if you’re finding any resonance with what I’m saying it’s I would encourage you and invite you to lean into that potential impermanence in front of you because as I think many of us know it’s through change we grow. And and that is a really important thing to keep in mind. Yeah you can stay on autopilot in the familiar but ask yourself are you growing? Are you hitting your potential and I think for me it if I was asking myself that question coming out of that first heart attack around 2017 2018 I don’t think I was I thought you know I was exploring these things which was very new to me but I wasn’t I hadn’t made the full the full transformation. And it’s interesting that you you you you bring up you know his presence like I’ve had two times in my life where something powerful like this has happened. I explained one um use your story to help and inspire others. The other time was related to this whole um first heart attack when they wheeled me out of surgery in the cath lab into the recovery center and I and the cardiac ICU wing the nurses made sure I was stable and hooked up to all the machines and everything like that. And when they walked out of the room and swung those blue curtains behind them a voice spoke in my ear and this is something I don’t talk a lot about to be perfectly honest because I feel like they’re the those that want to fact check these things or whatever. But it it I will absolutely go to my grave on this I heard a voice and it was so strong and so present I it was in my right ear and I looked to my right and I’m not even kidding you and it said find your birth parents so those are the two things where something big and higher has spoken to me. Find your birth parents and use your story to help and inspire others. I was so overwhelmed by the the events that were happening to me in 2017 and 2018 there were some crazy circumstances around my adoption story and my reunion story that were hard for me to process.
They were so incredible um and so I went and sat down with uh a reverend in our local um episcopalian church and because I needed answers I I sat down with him I said Chris I don’t I don’t know what to make of all of that this is a lot and and he when I told him the whole whole whole whole whole story um he said I’ve never seen the hand of God working through someone like this before the thing is miracles are everywhere AJ except people for whatever reason would rather not believe in the miracle they’re very quick to believe in the in the pain and the fear that’s an easy one because we’re in a fallen world right and everything we hear is well achievement do this this is how you gain joy and happiness and you and I both know that that’s not true. We’ve lived it we’ve nearly died because of it. I’m going to share my gut moment as I to give perspective I had started taking birth control pills when I met my soon to be second husband like a good Mexican girl I didn’t want to get pregnant. Well that was the least of my worries and when he invited my young son and I to go to Louisiana for Easter weekend of all weekends of the year Easter for the Christians it’s a pretty big weekend just to put it mildly and the day before we were scheduled to leave I got a pain in my chest and it was really pronounced I couldn’t take breaths beyond a certain point the pain was excruciating. And I called I come from an entire family of doctors so I’m very familiar with medical terms and then of course as you and I discussed at the beginning of the podcast I worked for Pfizer from Circle so I was in constant uh communion if you will with physicians in and out of ICUs because that’s where I worked and I called my brother he was rounding he didn’t see me in person so in all fairness to him and I shared my symptoms and and I was 36 at the time in super great shape I was exercising seven days a week Zumba instructor tennis player the whole nine yards and so he knew that about me and he said oh it sounds like pleurisy and pleurisy is the inflammation of the lining of the lung and it mimics the same symptoms as pulmonary embolism which can happen when you take birth control pills after the age of 35. It’s in that lovely fine print that I used to talk about day in and day out with my physicians. And he said oh just take you know ibucent five days a week you know five for five days like at higher concentrations and you should be okay but I’m gonna warn you it’s really painful so I don’t think he heard me say I’m about to get on the flight to Houston because I lived in South Texas. Okay. I have pulmonary embolisms I got on the flight do you know how miraculous that is that I did not die in the middle of the flight okay it’s amazing it’s just amazing that I made it just that piece right so I land in Houston I can’t even reach down to get my bags underneath my seat I I it’s excruciating. It’s awful and my little boy’s next to me and he’s excited because he you know he’s on a trip with his mom and he loves my boyfriend and he’s so excited to meet his family right Donnie sees me and says you know what instead of driving overnight like was the original plan do you imagine going from Houston to Louisiana overnight that would have been disastrous there’s no hospitals on the way right I mean if there is it’s not going to be the main medical center of Houston. He goes let’s just spend the night here because I think you don’t look well you really don’t I was so pale all right and I told him I said why discuss this with my brother and this is what’s going on the middle of the night we were in separate rooms because I have my little boy with me I get jolted out of bed AJ at three in the morning and the pain I I there is no there are no amount of words that I could have described and I did I attempted it in my book in Faith I Thrive Finding Joy Through God’s Master Plan chapter eight it’s the free chapter in my website for those that want to read it and find out more. Get jolted out 3 a.m and the first prompting the voice in my head was lean forward and you’ll be able to breathe and then in that in that point in my relationship with God I had developed a very strong relationship for the last three years and I knew to lean forward quickly and I did I lean forward like this and I stayed at this for four hours so I could breathe and the first thought that went through my mind was like man this is painful like my brother wasn’t kidding I didn’t call my boyfriend I didn’t call anybody and in that moment I was passing these major like super big blood clots that were going through my heart to land in my left lung it did not it did not stop it. How did I know to improve I didn’t I didn’t listen to that voice I would have died on the spot because there’s no doubt it would have stopped my heart okay that’s the first instance of hearing that voice but he wasn’t done with me yet because sometimes we go through something major like this and it’s really like where you really need to just surrender like that trust fall that you had with the universe I had the same one because the very next day I was really needing a miracle so I get admitted into the hospital the doctors are baffled they’re like you shouldn’t even be sitting up talking they do a scan I mean I’m it’s everywhere I’m I’m a freaking walking bomb like time bomb and they go your liver’s inflamed we don’t understand why we can’t we can’t shoot you with the die again because it’ll kill your kidney we have to wait till tomorrow this is good Friday I’m with my son and my boyfriend it’s the second time my boy’s been in the same you know space with this guy I call my brother it’s just a mess it’s good Friday I my sister-in-law flies in picks up my son I give him a kiss goodbye this is now Saturday and in what they’ve done the scan of my abdomen to like figure out what’s going on with the liver and I get six doctors in my room and they’re like we’ve got a real problem and I thought to myself really like I already have pulmonary embolisms like what could be worse than this and I go you have a massive blood clot and it is blocking the vena cava and that for those who don’t know is the main vein that takes blood out of your organs it’s a pretty important vein you don’t want it to get clotted up at all because there’s a very thin like space where the blood’s coming out of the liver but it’s putting so much pressure on it you’re about to require a transplant you see the three doctors on your right and I’m like yes they’re transplanting they’re now on your case and they had explained to my brother and my dad and my sister who are all physicians this girl likely will not survive the night you need to prepare you guys need to come up you know we don’t know yeah what we’re gonna give her this medication and then they start going through the side effects you know those commercials where they go through like a hundred side effects I’m like yeah you know I’m already facing all this right second chance like I’m begging God at this point. They get to death in hemorrhagic stroke I had stroke in my in in my family history my father had had major stroke due to a brain tumor that had developed due to his service in Vietnam and so but there’s major strokes in my family history when they said hemorrhagic stroke I was like I may not have a chance here you know and death of course they had to throw that in there just for fun that’s helpful and I remember feeling God’s providence and that the rest went numb like my whole mind went numb and just stopped hearing whoa what I mean I could see their their mouth moving I just couldn’t hear them anymore. And I remember visualizing falling into God’s arms in total surrender and telling him I guess you’re now in control. I trust you I know you’re gonna lead me into the path of greater joy I’m just begging you please to give me a second chance at life that’s all I’m asking for and this is Saturday now it’s Easter Sunday morning. I somehow survived that whole whatever they gave me because I woke up and I didn’t hadn’t had a stroke and in walks a woman with the Catholic diocese because you know when I walked in I was in between religions I was a Catholic but I got in the war so that kind of threw that in the fire and that is but I said Catholic and so here she walks in my boyfriend’s in the room and she said do you want to pray with me and I said yeah I kind of need a miracle you know I really do I don’t know what’s gonna happen because the doctor said explained to my family if this doesn’t work we’re gonna have to go the interventional route and likely she’ll die on the table there’s just it’s too much complication there’s just too much going on so I’m like terrified I have a little boy I found the man in my dreams I don’t want to die and so we form a circle and we start saying the Lord’s prayer worthy our father for the Catholics listening in the middle of the the prayer where it says thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven I felt a love AJ like I’ve never felt on this earth I was cradled in his arms and a peace washed over me and a knowing that I was okay that he had answered my prayers it was so instant it was so powerful to this day I get chills. I’m like feeling his presence right now as I’m speaking she leaves the room and my boyfriend turns to me and says you felt them too didn’t you because he told my boyfriend too that his prayers had been answered that he heard our prayers and that he answered them that I got my second chance at life and they wheeled me back there because they needed to find out what had happened I already knew what had happened I didn’t need confirmation from doctors anymore but you know doctors they always have to confirm. So they do the testing and the doctor comes out and I’ve never seen a doctor look so radiant in my entire life he said I cannot believe it there is not there’s no evidence of disease anywhere in your body and there should be because those pulmonary things they should have left two large holes in your left lung with major complications with scarring in your lungs there is nothing it’s like you nothing so three miracles in 72 hours that voice AJ that you heard twice that was him saying I know your desires I see you I understand I’ve got your back if you allow me to lead you I will lead you into your light if you allow me the problem is we are so conditioned in this world AJ to listen to the desires of our flesh which is what happened to you where that’s why you fell into old patterns that’s the desire of the flesh versus being spirit led you’re lucky you’re very lucky that you made it out after the first one let alone the second one so your purpose is so powerful that he’s telling you stay here but you gotta make changes so the reason why I’m sharing all these things is as human beings we really need to start listening to that voice because sometimes it’s not as thunderous as the one you heard sometimes it’s a whisper and if you are so focused on the outside of you and those achievements you’re not gonna hear it and he does reach out to us and he does guide us even when we don’t believe in him yet right so if some of us have had some religion trauma for example and we just turn away from him and we don’t want to talk about him and we don’t want to include him he’s still there with us by the way he’s still there he’s faithful he’s just waiting for us to invite him and then he’ll step in and he’ll make a way for you and the things that we thought were impossible like look my doctors they thought it was impossible I was going to survive for him it’s possible it’s so easy for him I mean he quieted oceans for God’s sakes you know I mean like to him this is no big deal to us this is like it’s so hard we complicate things don’t you agree we complicate stuff that’s not complicated because of our fear and that’s why it’s so important for us to heal those elements did you at the after the second one how did you start healing how did you really start moving into this space that you’re in now because there’s gotta be some process here.
Oh my goodness yes I so this was April 13th of last year um I got out of the hospital I think the 16th no on tax day I thought that was ironic yeah out of the hospital so I can pay my taxes that’s great um but uh I spent a lot of time in our garden um to be totally honest uh I would sit in our on our back patio we had a fountain back there and and watch the hydrangeas start to bloom and I was out there every day as long as I could sit out there um tuning into nature on those first couple of weeks uh knowing that I had already been through this and Schwab had given me four months leave um because that based on not an actuarial table but you know health event and age you know they have this all figured out like well you need to be off for this period of time whatever so I in my mind I’m thinking I’m gonna need four months to come get right uh but my first step is I’ve got to deal with the emotional baggage that I suddenly was wrestling with. And that was namely why me, why again, what have I done wrong? I’ve got to do this all over again this being recover and get back on my feet. I I was very emotional. There were multiple days that first week home uh I think I can count three three times in that first week where I completely lost it and broke down just sitting there in the garden peacefully uh wrestling with those those really big life questions why me why again what have I done wrong I’ve got to do this all over again give me the strength I got to come up with the strength to fight for through this I talked to my then therapist um helped me work you know I said I gotta get on the phone with someone because this is overwhelming me. But then it was once I I got over that that little pity party if you will and that you know this is not happen this didn’t happen to me due to bad luck or or whatever. It happened to me and I survived to learn from it and my life has to be led differently now if ands or buts. And so I learned early on um you know I needed to basically become a vegetarian um and I say basically that’s the strong advice from my cardiologist I put an asterisk next to that because there’s no way I’m giving up eating sushi. You will yank sushi out of my diet out of my cold dead hands. Like that is how that’s gonna happen. And every once in a while if I’m out to eat at a friend’s house and you know they’re serving chicken or something like that I’ll have a little bit but anyways point is a massive change to my diet um even after the first one I I went into the Mediterranean diet which still allows fish and chicken and turkey now it was like basically you got to get real with this vegetarian and cutting animal-based cholesterol out of your system. So there’s some changes there but I think the real healing quite frankly was when I started writing my book that I mentioned earlier. It’s part memoir two-time widowmaker survivor who’s found his biological family again crazy crazy story that I’m so blessed that it’s turned out the way it has and putting that down into paper I mean whether you journal or write whatever that is that process of writing and getting that letting your as I like to say letting your fingers be the soul or the vessel of your soul and just write what comes to you whether you’re with a pen and paper or your fingers on a keyboard whatever that is just let it flow and don’t think get your head out of the way and let your soul come through. And so for me that was very helpful in the process of writing this book uh with the memoir part and then my take on authenticity and some of the self-help practices and exercises that I have in there was all about just letting my soul speak and what’s really really important and the aha moment that I had that so much of joy in my mind having survived these two things twice is found in authentic alignment. And if we can tap into who we truly are and be very honest with ourselves about who we are not the masks we have to wear for our society or for our employers or you know PTA meetings or whatever it is but just truly who You are be radically honest with yourself and what makes you tick, what the core values that are non-negotiable in your life are. Um, and we build from there, once you get into that gooey part of your soul and start understanding what’s there, and then you start building out. I believe that that is where you can start sourcing real joy and fulfillment when you understand that. To not go do that work, I think you’re gonna be missing the point and not really honoring what needs to come out uh from deep inside. So that really helped me as and it helped me not only help me get a book out, which will hopefully help my business and help others who read it, but it helped me process and heal. Um and that I can move forward from two of these. And um it’s just more learning and growing that I need to do uh in a new way.
Yeah, and we’re always growing. We also the day we start growing is when our bodies physically die. That’s the only way you’re right. And we start growing, and there’s always a space to level up and to higher consciousness, higher level of thinking, higher level of being, spiritually led. That that’s that’s a very high concept. And I commend you for sitting outside in nature and for being authentic and vulnerable enough to share your story today, because I know that listeners on the other side are going to be, I don’t know, empowered beyond empowered. Especially the men listening that don’t ever ask for help. They want to, you know, push through things because that’s what society has told them to do. I’m going to tell you this: do not. If you want to be here in this world to protect the family, you’re not able to do it from that space. You gotta ask for help. You gotta do it now before you get before you get the the second widow maker or an 80% chance of dying. You don’t want to get to that point. You want to get we want to get you guys before that happens. So if you already start to turn inward for those answers and listen to that voice, that voice will lead you if you’ll let it. He’ll lead you in the into the light, into the purpose that you were created for, because we all were created for a purpose. And it’s very unique to us because your story is going to land very uniquely for those that need to hear it in exactly the same way you’re telling. That’s why he told you, write your story, share it with people, because he knows there’s people out there that need to hear it a certain way. I he told me, he prompted me, write your book, it’s time, trust me. He had been prompting me for 13 years. I had been telling him no. And then 2020 rolled around and he said, I need you to do this now. You’re running out of time. Well, the reason why was for me to heal my relationship with my father, he knew what was gonna happen. He knew my dad was gonna die four years later. And if I had not healed that relationship, the regret, because he knows my heart, he knows what I need. He’s so good, but we gotta listen. If we don’t listen to that voice, we’re gonna sometimes die because we’re not listening or listening to what other people are telling us that they they don’t know our hearts, they haven’t seen everything. They don’t know that they didn’t, they don’t know that you’re an adoptee unless you tell them that you’ve been adopted. But he knew, and that’s why he told you, go find them. There’s answers there that you’re looking for. He wanted to help you, right? So if I wanted to hire you to go speak um to people that I know would benefit from your story, how do I find you, AJ?
Yeah, well, I’m on LinkedIn as Adrian Jones. Uh or you can go to our website, morecareerwellness.com. Check us out there. You can email me. I can be reached at hello at more career wellness.com. I’d love to hear from you. Uh, if what we’re doing at more would be of value, or you think I can come speak to a group, um, whether that’s at work or whatever organization where my story might be of value, happy to do it. Would love to hear from anybody. So those would be the prime ways to find me.
Well, that’s awesome. And thank you again, AJ, for joining us on released out reveal purpose. We are the listeners who released out reveal purpose. Remember Matthew 5.14, to be the light, be the light like AJ was the light. Do something about it. Don’t sit there and wait for another heart attack or wait for you know pulmonary embolisms. You don’t want to wait for that. Trust us. Be the light now. Listen to that voice and step into that light with so much courage and so much authenticity. I thank all of you for listening and tuning in. You will be blessed by this episode. I love y’all. Stay blessed. Bye now.
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