“If you have your health you have everything.” We’ve all heart this before. The idea that a person’s health is their most precious commodity is not new.
Yet too often when people think about their health they focus solely on their physical health, and by this they generally are talking about the absence of illness. Health to most people means not being sick.
I think we could all agree that if we’re really looking to become healthy we should set our sights past illness and start thinking about wellness. A even broader understanding might be optimum health.
What does it mean to have optimum health?
In my understanding, this means being someone who is not only free of disease, but someone who is making the lifestyle choices that will keep them from ever having to worry about sickness. Although there are no guarantees in life, by making the proper choices in what we eat, the exercise we get, and how we act- it can go a long way towards keeping us well.
And we also need to peer past our physical health. As human beings we are more than the physical. All of us possess minds. We have emotions, and there is another dimension to health. I call this a heart centered wellness.
What am I talking about? Well, I think we could all agree that sometimes our hearts become troubled. They become muddled, weighted down by emotional and psychological forces that can be destructive. Fear, anger, grief, loneliness, inner pain, and a host of other emotions can whip through us like a piercing wind. They stab the heart, and although we may not give them the importance of real illness, they can indeed create disease.
Heart disease in particular can be created by such negative emotions. Countless medical studies have documented a direct link between heart disease and these emotional tornados.
One way to combat this negative onslaught is through what I call, Heart Centered Living. Heart Centered Living is a way of quieting these rowdy forces by becoming more in touch with our heart’s inner wisdom. Everyone has this inner heart knowledge. You may call it intuition. You may experience it as gut feelings. Whatever you call it, all of us have experiences of inner wisdom that defy rational thought.
Ever meet a person and instantly get bad vibes about them? For whatever reason you just knew they didn’t have your best interests in mind. Or have you ever been walking out the door and a small voice inside told you that you were forgetting something? And instead of stopping you continue barreling out the door, only to discover later that you had indeed forgotten something important?
I’m sure we’ve all had this experience. We’ve all had knowings that defied logical thought but were indeed true.
Learning to live a more heart centered life is a way to tap into this knowledge for health and wellness. A first step in this process is to just become more aware of our feelings. Keeping a journal is one good way of developing awareness.
Another effective method involves setting aside daily time for contemplation and reflection. If we can commit to 15-30 minutes of personal quiet time, and allow the inner voice of our heart’s yearnings to surface, we can begin results that will improve our life.
Lastly, personal coaching or professional help can be instrumental in becoming more heart centered. Find someone you trust who has the knowledge and experience to lead you on a journey to true heart awakening- then truly you will have everything.
You’ll have real heart health.
Dr. Laman is a board certified, cardiologist interested in heart disease prevention. He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Michigan State University. He offers a free monthly newsletter on his website called “Mending Hearts. ” His book, “How to Heal Your Broken Heart, ” is designed to help people struggling with issues of the heart. To purchase his book go to: www.HealingYourBrokenHeart.com/ For further information: www.drlaman.com/