Health & Wellness Article - February 2011Reflections on nurturing your heart
“Recipe for a happy heart: 2 cups of Love, 1 cup of Friendship, 1 cup of Gratitude, Add a dash of Laughter, Pour into any Soul”
There is a lot of knowledge gleaned through research that results in recommendations and resources to deal with heart disease—the number one killer of men and women worldwide. Physicians, pharmacists, and other allied health professionals recommend both prevention and intervention strategies that are often anchored in common sense and good choices and decisions about exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress reduction, and medications, as appropriate and needed.
But beyond all the traditional information, there is a significant amount of credible research that shows that unresolved sadness, depression, loneliness, isolation, and fear are risk factors that affect heart health—possibly as much or more than a sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, and inadequate sleep.
Nurturing your heart with positive influences may take as much time and resolve as the physical requirements of doing exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, following heart-healthy dietary guidelines, and making changes in leisure habits. Compassion, joy, love, and humor are essential ingredients of heart health. Time spent daily on this side of the heart-health equation requires deliberate decisions about relationships, time spent giving and receiving, a sense of humor (even when stressful life situations occur), and laughter—“out loud” and often.
One way to emphasize the positive aspects of life choices is to make a “joy” list—a list of the times in your life when you feel the most joyful, connected, and positive. The essence of the experience is what you bring to it. It might be passion, commitment, curiosity, or energy. To contrast this, make a “no joy” list that represents the things you do that deplete your energy and diminish your joy. This list may have people, places, and things, but your emotions are the key. Is it possible to replace the “don’t want to’s” with the “do want to’s?” Try it and see.
Touchmark is committed to the personal journey of each resident in regard to heart health. If you would like support in achieving your personal goals, contact a member of the Life Enrichment Wellness team. Helping you with your goals for heart health is important to our mission of enriching people’s lives.
© 2008 Touchmark