Three Ways To Protect Your Heart – Ways 2 & 3
Three Ways To Protect Your Heart – Ways 2 & 3
…continued from “Three Ways To Protect Your Heart.”
Strengthen Your Stomach Muscles To Protect Your Heart
Stress is thought to trigger heart ailments by causing the body to release stress hormones that weaken heart muscles. Stress triggers a “fight or flight” response that increases heart rate and blood pressure.
To support the “fight or flight” response blood is directed away from the midsection and is directed to the limbs and brain to support mobility and quick thinking.
A constantly stressful environment can trigger reduced blood flow to the stomach and digestive system resulting in reduced metabolism, reduced gut flora, reduced enzyme output in the stomach, decreased nutrient absorption, elevated cholesterol, and heart burn.
Having a strong abdominal or core can help control stress. A great part of stress is caused by our perception or reaction to something. Everyone reacts differently to the same situation. One people may get stressed in a situation while another will not get stressed in the same situation.
When you work to develop your core you are also working on controlling your breathing. Controlling your breathing is key to controlling stress. Taking deep and long breaths help to clam the mind, stomach, and heart. It promotes calmness.
You can do situps, crunches, yoga, pilates, ride a bicycle, or do calisthenic exercises to strengthen your core and to control your breathing.
Live In The Now To Protect Your Heart
Living in the now to protect your heart goes hand in hand with strengthening the core. They both work on controlling stress.
I think living in the now may be the hardest thing to do out of the three ways to protect your heart.
When we think too much on things in the past we wish didn’t happened or could have or should have happened differently we keep ourselves involved with those negative ideas and emotions. The reality is we can do nothing about one second ago.
The past is gone and is an illusion. All we can do something about is right now. We must focus on right now to achieve what we want. Another thing we need to do is to learn to accept failure. We all fail and will continue to fail because no one is perfect. It is part of learning and part of life.
The key is to learn and get better and see life as a journey of learning and hopefully understanding.
To ground yourself in the now you focus and meditate on what you want to be. I don’t mean wanting to be some made up thing like a doctor or movie star. I mean what you want to be. Being a doctor or a movie star are manufactured ways to achieving what you want to be.
Being is how your are in this moment: happy, sad, upset, uneasy, or compassionate. These are states of being. If you practice being still and quiet and meditate on these states of being, over time your consciousness wraps around them and they envelope you.
Spend time focusing on how you feel, how your body reacts, how your mind reacts, how your breath reacts when you are connected to compassion, joy, and acceptance. Focus on keeping those feelings and reactions in your consciousness.
You have to make conscious efforts to do this daily which will lead to the understanding that things or events don’t give you these states of being. Only you give yourself these states of being which sooth and relax the heart and mind. This path leads to being in the now and supports a healthy functioning heart.
