Working Well: Seeking the elusive work-life balance, one step at a time

The moment I knew I had to get serious about work-life balance came without warning. I was writing a high-profile news story during the pandemic when my heart began pounding like a jackhammer.

I took a quick, deep breath and held it, hoping to calm the arrhythmia. It was a technique I’d learned to relieve occasional palpitations caused by my rare congenital heart defect. But this time was different. The room went dark. I couldn’t see. Then, just as quickly, my vision returned.

In the days that followed, I learned I needed to have a defibrillator surgically implanted as soon as possible. My cardiologist told me: it’s time to reduce stress. That was a prescription I, like many Americans, didn’t know how to fill, especially as the parent of a young child.

But the health scare and a cancer diagnosis that followed meant I had to try. Now, as I continue this journey, I’m launching a series called “Working Well.” While exploring ways to improve my own well-being at work, I’ll share experts’ insights and tips with readers who hope to do the same.

The Associated Press wants to contribute to the conversation about workplace wellness. In the coming months, we plan to interview doctors, therapists, executives and coaches about the changes they recommend or have made to improve employees’ lives — ones you may want to consider, too.

The topic is personal for me. After I received my defibrillator, I took steps to find that elusive work-life balance. I experimented with a four-day workweek. That helped me find time to exercise, cook healthy meals and occasionally pause.

With the life-threatening diagnosis also came lessons in healing. For the first time in my life, I was forced to slow down enough that I could listen to my body. When I was tired in the afternoon, instead of having chocolate or coffee, I took a nap. I timed my chemotherapy appointments so I’d be well enough to walk to the bus stop on my son’s first day of kindergarten, celebrate his birthday and walk house-to-house on Halloween.

I began acupuncture. I finally tried meditation. I learned that for this disease, unlike with my heart condition, there was a raft of support networks available. Social workers contacted me at every turn.

At one point I had three therapists. One taught me a calming technique that I used on the way to my PET scan. In the car, inching through thick traffic with my husband driving, I began feeling dizzy, my fingers tingling, as I imagined the radiologist finding inoperable tumors all over my body. I remembered the therapist’s advice: Name five things you can see. Four things you can hear. Three things you can feel. Two things you can smell. One thing you can taste. I tried it. The panic subsided.

Coming back, I wanted to continue the wellness habits that cancer, after thrusting me off the track that had been my life, gave me the time to begin. Writing stories that help others, including this series, is a way to do that.

In Working Well, I’ll share stories about inspiring workers who have overcome challenges and actively improved their health. I’ll tackle topics from how to negotiate a new schedule to navigating the workplace with health challenges.

I want to hear your experiences as well. Have you surmounted a big obstacle at work? Adopted new habits? Found balance, or not, as a working parent? Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Together, let’s be well at work.