Valentine’s Day Love: Stress Management & Heart Health

While I’m a huge sucker for Valentine’s Day, a good Rom-Com, and sweet love notes, I also think it’s the perfect time of year to acknowledge all matters of the heart, including heart healthy foods, stress management and exercise habits. The past year has been even more stressful than “normal” years, which means our hearts have taken a few hits in more ways than we know! This year, for Valentine’s Day, explore the dangers of stress and the magic of meditation for a healthy heart.

Stress is at the “heart” (I had to!) of several chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, not to mention many more areas of dis-ease in the body including inflammation, acid reflux, anxiety, depression, hormone imbalance, and many more.

How Stress Works

Let’s say you’re out for a hike and run into a mountain lion. Your body immediately reacts to this stress to prepare your body for fight or flight. Here is the long story short of what your body does in response to the mountain lion:

1.      Hypotholamus, a region in your brain, sets of an alarm.

2.      Adrenals release hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline

3.      Adrenaline increases your heart rate, blood pressure, and energy supply.

4.      Cortisol shuts down functions that are unnecessary to fight or flight like digestion and reproductive systems.

Your body is not dumb, everything happens in order to support your body for stress…and ultimately, survival.

Let’s say you stand still on the trail and the mountain lion decides to leave you alone and move on. Ugh, you start to breathe again, muscles relax, your heartbeat slows down. You body immediately turns off the alarm and operations go back to normal.

At least this is what is supposed to happen. The threat came, threat passed, the body relaxes into “standard mode.”

However, what if the threat isn’t a mountain lion. Instead, it’s your job or money or a relationship…something that is part of your everyday life. Your body has sounded off the alarm for fight or flight mode, but the alarm went off 5 years ago and hasn’t stopped.

How do you think this constant stress effects your body? That’s right! Chronic disease sets in, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, obesity, etc.

In many cases, it’s not necessarily the stress itself that causes problems, but it’s the lifestyle that we choose in order to deal with the stress that hurts our bodies in the end. The American Institute of Stress writes, “With respect to personality and Type A behavioral traits, Von Düsch, a 19th century German physician, first noted that excessive involvement in work appeared to be the hallmark of people who died from heart attacks. (Von Düsch, 1868) He did not imply that job stress was the culprit, but rather that such individuals seemed to be preoccupied with their work and had few outside interests.”

Instead of exercise, hobbies or interests, many stressed out people reach for alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, and junk food, which might make them feel better in the moment, but causes pain and dis-ease in the long run.

What is Stress Management?

Stress management are activities, lifestyle choices, and methods that we all choose to incorporate into our lives in order to keep our bodies from living in fight or flight mode. It is slowing down, breathing and taking a break from the intensity of our everyday world. It is our mind taking the time and mindful steps to tell our body that “All is well.”

Some ideas for Stress Management include but are not limited to:

·        Meditation

·        Yoga

·        Exercise

·        Nature

·        Reading

·        Taking a bath

·        Talking or hanging out with a friend

·        Dancing/movement

·        Arts & Crafts

·        Snuggling with a loved one

·        Snuggling with a pet

·        Breathing exercises

·        Listening to music

·        Cooking

·        Baking

Our days are busy and filled with many “threats”, but there is nothing more important than taking care of our own hearts.

Here is a simple and fast way to check in with yourself and acknowledge your heart.

“Take a deep inhale, hold at the top and then exhale, letting everything go.

Now place your left hand over your heart. Then place your right hand on top of your left.

Gently close your eyes.

Take a deep inhale, hold at the top and exhale.

Repeat.

Smile.

Drop your hands.

Open your eyes.”

There are now several published studies that link meditation with reduced stress and heart health. Harvard Health Publishing states, “A meditation practice supports your heart in many ways — from changing how you cope with stress to lowering high blood pressure.”

So this Valentine’s Day, consider prioritizing a Morning Meditation as the ultimate act of self love.