How To Make Your Heart Happy
Good heart health isn’t about doing just one thing, it’s a holistic practice. Finding ways to reduce stress and anxiety while boosting positive emotions can take many forms. Balancing our green time and screen time, moving more, prioritizing human connection, and incorporating practices of mindfulness and gratitude are critical for a healthy heart, body and mind. Here are seven ways to make your heart (body and mind) happy this February:
Get Your DNA (Daily Nature Adventure): Just 15 minutes in nature lowers your cortisol levels by 16%.
Create A Digital Curfew: Set a time to put your devices to bed for the night, and a time you’ll start using them again in the morning. We’d recommend 1-2 hours before you go to sleep and after you wake up.
Make Time for Movement: Carve out 30 minutes each day to move around—and choose an activity you enjoy! Even light physical activity can reduce the risk of heart disease.
Prioritize People: We are hard-wired for human connection and it’s essential to our overall well being. Prioritize quality time with family and friends, in-person when possible.
Be Here, Now: Noticing your breath, feeling each footstep as you walk, feeling your emotions are calming ways to bring present moment awareness into your daily life.
Feel Your Emotions: The ability to feel your emotions is an important practice and skill. Keep it simple, notice what you’re feeling and name it. Are you feeling mad, sad, glad, afraid or maybe something else?
Practice Gratitude: Incorporating a short gratitude practice boosts our mood and positive emotions. It also helps folks recover from and manage substance abuse, depression and coronary events.
