Print this out and post it on the fridge or your mirror as a daily reminder that ignoring your instincts and you body's signals can kill you.

There are lots of lessons women can learn from Rosie O'Donnell's heart attack.

By now you've probably heard, seen or read that celeb and talk show host Rosie O'Donnell suffered a heart attack and, essentially, saved her own life. She is 50 years old and struggles with the same health issues that so many of us non-celebrity women struggle with every day.

There is an important lesson here for us all to learn: She is not alive today because she's a wealthy celeb with access and power. She's alive today, after what was reported as a massive cardiac episode, because she remembered what to do (and got lucky...which we all can do, too.)

Cardiac symptoms in women

I want to take us all through what happened and what she did so we can all remember to be mindful of our bodies when they are screaming for us to call 911! As women — and you all know what I'm going to write here — we are trained to put ourselves last....to avoid/ignore/deny/dismiss our own symptoms/health/ discomfort/instincts. Well, let's retrain ourselves. Since everybody depends on us to keep it together, it seems short-sighted not to take Rosie's cardiac incident and learn from it to help us help ourselves. She is generously telling her story, doing the circuit so all women can learn from this.