Holding space for your heart in February

The new year has just come and gone. Whether or not you created New Year’s resolutions for your health, I am writing today as a gentle reminder of how best to sustain your mind, body, and spirit, and to give a little sprinkle of hope to get us through the rest of Winter. 

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it is a good time to reflect on our hearts’ health. And yes, I did mean “hearts” plural. 

• We have our physical heart – the one that beats rhythmically in our chest and pumps blood to the rest of our body. The one that is measured by its strength, endurance, flexibility, size, and electric charge. 
• We also have our emotional heart – the one that extends a loving hand to ourselves and to others. The one that is measured by its openness, vulnerability, and capacity for love. 
• We lastly have our spiritual heart – the one that connects us to our source, our soul, our purpose. This one is more difficult to define and measure. 

The Physical Heart

The heart starts beating at about three weeks in utero and continues to beat every second of every day until our very last breath. It is a muscle that works without us asking and it works very hard. It has alarm bells it sounds when it needs more support – symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, and palpitations can remind us to take a step back and become more serious about our heart health. Hypertension (high blood pressure), on the other hand, is considered the “silent killer” because it is often asymptomatic but over time can be detrimental to our health. 

That is why prevention is key to heart health. With the proper knowledge and tools, we can hopefully prevent those alarm bells from ever sounding. 

Here are my top tips for heart health prevention:

1. Aerobic exercise (AKA cardio – something that gets your heart rate up for a consistent period of time). The CDC recommends 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity per week. As a naturopathic doctor, I strongly believe in finding movement that you enjoy. Don’t be afraid to step outside of the box and “try on” different exercises before settling for something you find boring or committing to something that might be too challenging for your body type and needs.
   
2. Anti-inflammatory nutrition. This includes a diet low in processed foods and high in whole, single ingredient foods. Swap in healthy fats like extra-virgin olive oil and avocado oil to replace highly processed seed and vegetable oils. Eat red meat in moderation and include a large serving of fibrous vegetables at every meal.
   
   
   • Pro-tip #1: using olive oil to cook on high heat is harmful because its structure changes into something inflammatory. Only use olive oil cold ex: as a garnish on cooked foods or as salad dressing.
   
   
   • Pro-tip #2: if you have high cholesterol, keeping inflammation down is even more crucial for your health. It is the combination of high cholesterol + high inflammation that leads to the plaque buildup in our arteries and can lead to heart attack and strokes.
   
   
3. See your doctor annually and screen for the following: 
   
   
   • High blood pressure: it can be helpful to measure your blood pressure at home on a regular basis and to monitor it professionally with your doctor. Take it at the same time every day after a period of relaxation. 
   
   
   • High cholesterol/lipids: ask your doctor for a full lipid panel. If you suspect genetics is a factor, ask for Apolipoprotein B and Lipoprotein (a). 
   
   
   • High inflammation: ask your doctor to run inflammatory markers like cardiac-specific C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). 
   
   
   • Calcium build-up: a calcium score is a type of imaging that looks at calcium and plaque build-up in your arteries and may be appropriate for you if you have chronically elevated cholesterol.
   
   

Now we will dive deep into our other hearts – the emotional heart and the spiritual heart – to learn why they are important and how we can best support them. 

The Emotional Heart

Keeping the emotional heart sustained and healthy is just as, if not more, important than maintaining your physical heart health. In Chinese medicine, the heart is the organ of joy and associated with the fire element. When the heart is out of balance, we can experience emotional numbness and depression, become overzealous and manic, or experience anxiety. 

Here are my top tips for supporting the emotional heart:

• Loving-kindness meditations. This type of meditation directs your energy to receiving love and sending love out, to both people you love and people you may not. It is a beautiful practice for cultivating kindness and peace in your inner and outer worlds. 

• Chest-opening stretches, yoga, and qi gong. Some examples include corner stretch, cat-cow, fish pose, and puppy pose. Opening your heart-space not only feels freeing but it allows fresh energy to flow to your heart and removes stagnant energy from the space. 

• Diving into core beliefs with a therapist about your capacity to love and be loved. You are not alone if you struggle with the belief that you are “unlovable.” Through talk therapy, you can start to unravel your core beliefs, smash intrusive thoughts, and work on building a strong foundation for loving yourself and others. 

• The herb Rose: Rose is considered an energetically heart-opening herb. No wonder it’s the Hallmark flower of choice for Valentine’s Day! Using this herb in different forms (teas, extracts, and aromatherapy) can help support your emotional heart. 

• Acupuncture and acupressure for the heart. This can help rebalance and relieve symptoms of both the emotional and physical hearts. 

The Spiritual Heart

According to the Blue Zone’s author Dan Buettner, who explored the globe for answers about health and longevity, having a strong purpose is amongst the top keys for foundational health. Having a purpose within a community makes that factor even more potent for longevity. In Chinese medicine, the physical heart is also known as the home of the spirit. 

Here are my top tips for supporting the spiritual heart:

• Find purpose in your life. Your purpose does not have to be some magnanimous thing, some great accomplishment, or some global impact. It can be as simple as being a good friend, parent, or grandchild. It can be to bring a sliver more joy into the world by making someone smile each day. It can be to study the mysteries of nature or god(s) or the galaxies to bring you closer to your source. It can be contributing to society through your job or profession if that rings true to you, but it doesn’t have to be. 

• Stay curious about your deepest self and how you connect to the universe. Observe how you flow and change with the tides of life, yet remain sturdy in your core and foundations. Put into perspective your presence on this earth and in this life. 

• Connect to others in a “spiritual” community. Whether that be in a church, mosque, or synagogue, at a nature camp or yoga retreat, or simply over a meal with loved ones. Connecting with others keeps our spiritual heart nourished, our cups filled, and keeps the love flowing. 

February Kindness Challenge: Another great way to connect and nourish the emotional and spiritual heart is to embody what the heart represents by cultivating a practice of kindness. We’re here to help so join us for a kindness challenge this month! 

I challenge you for the month of February to take one piece of advice from this article and incorporate it in your own way. Share with us what you do!