Most people are well aware of the major risk factors for coronary heart disease, which include smoking, high blood pressure (hypertension), elevated cholesterol levels, family history, diabetes, and inadequate physical exercise. The strong influence of emotional well-being on heart disease is generally less well known, although most people intuitively understand the intimate link between their emotional and physical heart. Learning to effectively handle emotional stress improves both mental and physical well-being.
Living beings are programmed to protect themselves when threatened. The most primitive reaction we express when we feel endangered is called the fight-or-flight response. When this response is activated, our nervous and hormonal systems compel us to aggressively respond to a potential threat.
Our blood pressure rises, our hearts beat faster and harder, we breathe more rapidly, our blood sugar rises, we sweat, our adrenal glands pump out adrenaline, and the tiny blood clotting cells known as platelets become stickier. These “jittery” platelets clump together, cutting off the supply of nourishing blood to the heart. Over time, the chronic effects of stress contribute to the hardening of the arteries and hypertension.
The Danger of the Fight-or-Flight Response
All of these changes are potentially helpful when facing a real threat to our survival. If a mountain lion is chasing us, the fight-or-flight response may help us escape from or fight off the predator. Unfortunately, we often activate this response even when the stress is primarily emotional or psychological. Elevated blood pressure and sticky platelets may be adaptive when you’re running away from a fierce beast, but they are not useful when you find yourself stuck in rush-hour traffic, learn that your child is failing algebra, or discover that your car was side swiped in a parking lot.
The tendency to react aggressively when things do not go the way we want, puts our hearts at risk. In one of his early books, Travels, the popular writer Michael Crichton described a discovery he made while he was a medical student at Harvard University. While doing his cardiac rotation, he asked patients, “Why did you have a heart attack?” Everyone had an answer, and it was not that their cholesterol level or blood pressure was too high or that they didn’t exercise enough. The responses were personal and meaningful. One man said he got a promotion but his wife didn’t want to move. Another said his wife was planning to leave him. Most responses expressed deep distress over relationships, children, or jobs. Crichton wrote, “What I was seeing was that their explanations made sense from the standpoint of the whole organism, as a kind of physical acting-out. These patients were telling me stories of events that had affected their hearts in a metaphysical sense. They were telling me sad love stories, which had pained their hearts. Their wives and families and bosses didn’t care for them. Their hearts were attacked. And pretty soon, their hearts were literally attacked.”
Each person’s heart tells the story of his or her life. A healthy heart requires you to relinquish beliefs, feelings, and behaviors that are not nourishing, and bring into your life food and relationships that deeply nurture your body and mind. I encourage you to create love stories that will serve you physically, emotionally, and spiritually. As a result, you will be able to spend more time enjoying your precious human heart.
Let’s explore some of the most powerful tools and techniques we can use to create balance in our lives and support our heart and well-being.
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