When you’re ill it is easy to feel isolated and have a narrow focus. It is almost as if your heart shrinks along with your vision. Part of healing includes expanding your thoughts to beyond the immediate. This cannot be forced, but it can be encouraged by various habits such as practicing gratitude and connecting to others personally as well as people beyond your immediate world, for example participation in volunteer groups and online communities .
Yesterday, I went to the annual fundraising breakfast for Hearts Around the World. Their mission: “Hearts Around the World, Inc. supports medical and cardiovascular training programs in third world and emerging nations through hands-on education and demonstrations. Our ultimate goal is to provide physicians and staff of the local hospitals with modern medical information and techniques required to care for all of their patients in need.”
There are so many ways to commit to heart health during this month of February. Starting with ourselves, there are practical commitments which can be acted on daily through healthy eating and exercise, and then there are the commitments that go beyond ourselves. I was inspired by the work that Hearts Around the World does and left the breakfast feeling uplifted and more optimistic.
What can you do to expand your heart a little, and in so doing increase your healing?
Please feel free to share with your friends and networks.
Dina
Hi, Dina, Thanks for your touching, inspiring article. As a related thought, I wonder if you might want to review with your readers how stress can be bad, but sometimes certain types of stress are good for you and your heart!
Ed thanks for your suggestion. I’ll keep it in mind for later in the year. There are definitely stresses which are good, like the birth of a child or a marriage; while these invoke the stress response it is moderated by the positive feelings which are associated with them.
Hi, Dina, Thanks for your touching, inspiring article. As a related thought, I wonder if you might want to review with your readers how stress can be bad, but sometimes certain types of stress are good for you and your heart!
Ed thanks for your suggestion. I’ll keep it in mind for later in the year. There are definitely stresses which are good, like the birth of a child or a marriage; while these invoke the stress response it is moderated by the positive feelings which are associated with them.