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Whether you’re talking about the actual human heart, which weighs between 7 ounces and 15 ounces, beats 100,000 times a day, and is a little bigger than your fist, or whether you’re talking about the heart, which is the emotional center of humans. , February is related to matters of the heart.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson designated February as Heart Health Month after suffering a heart attack himself. Since then, other U.S. presidents have followed suit every year, recognizing cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death among American adults.
Dubbed the “silent killer” because there are few symptoms before onset, this disease is your best defense against heart disease. Practicing good habits such as eating a healthy diet, exercising daily, getting enough sleep, and other habits you can read about on the American Heart Association’s excellent website heart.org can help prevent heart disease. It can make a huge difference to your risk.
Simple adjustments like laughing more, being still a few times a day, and taking deep breaths can make a difference.
February’s Valentine’s Day, Ash Wednesday, and Buddha’s Reclining Day holidays focus not on the heart as a human organ, but on the heart as the center of human emotion. Understanding both minds is important to our individual and national well-being.
emotional and physical center
It is interesting to consider which understanding of the heart makes treatment more difficult when an insult to the heart occurs. When my father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in his 80s, he was advised to make lifestyle changes to reduce his LDL (“bad cholesterol”).
Learning this just before Thanksgiving, I tried to prepare a holiday meal that respected my father’s dietary needs and would be a feast that my family had learned to expect and enjoy. I am in awe of people who develop the skills and discipline to make food that is both good for you and delicious.
This change in meal preparation was difficult for me, but nothing compares to the mental adjustments I had to make during difficult times in my life: betrayal, discrimination, depression, and broken relationships. . So many types of human suffering can threaten our emotional center, the heart, and threaten our mental health.
power of love
As retail stores, public media, social media, and society’s attention shifts from the new year to Valentine’s Day, this month feels like a good time to embrace the power of love to heal broken hearts.
Just as my father had to adjust his diet to regain his health, perhaps we too, as people who have become desensitized to the increasing acceptance of mean spirits and hatred , you may need to adjust your emotional eating habits. Perhaps we need to be more intentional about the words we speak, the thoughts we share, and the emotions we experience.
As a child, I remember the excitement of preparing valentines for my classmates. It was never considered to exclude children we didn’t like. Rather, we brought enough cards to class for each classmate neatly placed in small envelopes with their names handwritten.
In class, we had some kind of homemade containers such as boxes, bags, envelopes, etc. to collect Valentine’s Day. I remember Valentine’s Day as a good day, a day when everyone was treated kindly.
As I entered my teens, Valentine’s Day felt either positive or negative, depending on my sense of being valued by my love interest. I was impressed by the way the grown children and their peers made this day a broader and more inclusive celebration.
learn new behaviors
Galentine’s Day was featured on a 2010 episode of “Parks and Recreation” and continues to be celebrated on February 13 in honor of a “best friend” or beloved friend. Although it’s mostly celebrated by the gals it’s named after, anyone can celebrate friendship on this day.
Staff at senior centers and senior living facilities are focused on remembering Valentine’s Day in a way that affirms that everyone is special. It seems more important than ever that we celebrate this love equally and treat each other with positive respect as human beings.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), prejudice and hatred are on the rise in the United States. But UNICEF also reminds us that these attitudes and behaviors are not innate. They are learned, and sometimes they are not.
Ravi Chandra, a San Francisco psychiatrist, author, compassion educator, and distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, writes in his recent article “Six Tips for Loving Your Enemies”: I’m asking. Is loving them something we should aspire to, both online and in real life? If so, how should I deal with it? ”
“Adding love and shared humanity to our emotional ecosystem is the responsible way to put the brakes on hate and the opportunities for violence it brings,” he concludes. We need less hate and more love in our emotional eating.
to love one’s enemies
This Black History Month, I remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who studied the words of Mahatma Gandhi and his call for peaceful protest in India. In his sermon entitled “Love Your Enemies,” Dr. King said: Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can make that possible. ”
Being grateful for our precious lives and living with gratitude is at the heart of Ash Wednesday. This Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day this year and is celebrated by many Christians as the beginning of the holy season of Lent. Considering how human love strengthens the meaning of our precious lives, this convergence of his two days seems fitting.
The anniversary of Buddha’s death, celebrated on February 15th as “Buddha Nirvana Day”, like Ash Wednesday, reminds us of the fleeting nature of life and awakens us to the importance of living well. Buddha taught this. “Hate cannot be extinguished by hatred. Hatred can only be extinguished by love. That is the eternal law.”
The wisest among us have been promoting for years that love is the answer. And we can resolve to practice love. Many believe that love is innate and can contribute not only to emotional well-being, but also to physical well-being. Oxytocin, which is produced in the brain by practicing loving behaviors, is known to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
In this month of celebrating the heart, both physical and emotional, we all know that love is the answer, and we all know that love is the answer. I pray that you will decide to shower your love.
The Rev. Candace McKibben is an ordained minister and pastor of Tallahassee Fellowship..
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