NEW YORK — The moment I knew I had to get serious about work-life balance came without warning. I was writing a news story during the pandemic when my heart started pounding.

I took a quick, deep breath and held it, hoping to calm the arrhythmia. It was a technique I had 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 sight returned.

In the days that followed, I learned that I needed to have a defibrillator surgically implanted as soon as possible. My cardiologist told me: it’s time to reduce stress. It was a prescription that I, like many Americans, did not 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.” As I explore ways to improve my own well-being at work, I’ll share expert insights and tips with readers hoping to do the same.

We’ve been through a lot in recent years: A global pandemic took the lives of loved ones and left parents juggling full-time jobs with no childcare. Elections and war divided families and workplaces. It’s no wonder workers feel burned out.

But along with these challenges came a growing sense that we could choose to build our professional lives in a different, healthier way. Companies experimented with hybrid work models. Younger generations talked more proactively about mental health. Employers looking to retain workers launched their own yoga and stress reduction programs.

In the coming months, we plan to interview doctors, therapists, managers and coaches about the changes they recommend or have made to improve employees’ lives.

After I got my defibrillator, I took steps to find that elusive work-life balance. I experimented with a four day work week. It helped me find time to exercise, cook healthy meals and sometimes take a break.

Just when I was getting into a groove, a routine mammogram revealed breast cancer. There would be surgery. I was given terrifying handouts and told bluntly about procedures that would make me feel like a piece of meat. There would be months of chemotherapy. Thirty rounds of radiation. My heart disease complicated every treatment plan.

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

My oncologist encouraged me to exercise through chemotherapy. I swam laps at the city pool, under the green leaves of the oaks. I tried yin yoga. I took walks. When I felt dizzy, I rested. When I felt stronger, I rode my stationary bike and did crunches.

I learned that for this disease, unlike my heart disease, there was a wealth 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, walking through heavy traffic with my husband driving, I began to feel dizzy, my fingers tingled, 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. A thing you can taste. I tried it. The panic subsided.

My body healed enough to return to work. But I was changed. I still had brain fog and fatigue, side effects from chemotherapy and radiation. How would I perform? Was it possible to maintain my health and thrive in my career?

When I came back, I wanted to continue the health habits that the cancer, after knocking me off the track that had been my life, gave me time to start. Writing stories that help others, including this series, is one way to do that.

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

I also want to hear your experiences. Have you overcome a major obstacle at work? Adopted new habits? Found balance, or not, as a working parent? Share your workplace wellness stories and questions at [email protected]. Together, let’s have a good time at work.