Heart Health Month
February is American Heart Month but anytime is always the perfect time to think about your hearts. According to the American Heart Association, Heart Disease is America's number one health crisis. Yes, you read that correctly.
The CDC specifies that heart disease comprises several types of heart conditions and diagnoses, such as Arrhythmia, Heart Attacks, Heart Failure, and Cardiovascular Disease. Heart Disease often develops when the arteries that supply blood to the heart become clogged with plaque, which causes the arteries to harden and narrow restricting blood flow.
Understanding The Heart
The heart is the muscle that pumps blood received from veins into arteries throughout the body. The heart represents the center of love and security. And, for some when it is unhealthy it can mean validation.
Squeezing of joy out of the heart - Louise Hay
Louise Hay, a self-help author of You Can Heal Your Life, outlined the facets of illnesses concerning how individuals live and process their lived experiences. Hay surmises that someone who experiences a heart attack has lived experiences where there is a "squeezing of joy out of the heart," potentially in favor of something materialistic, such as money or position. Hay continues by declaring that individuals feel "alone and scared," and may internalize messages to themselves such as:
“I’m not good enough."
"I don’t do enough."
"I’ll never make it.”
Louise Hay continues by surmising that general heart problems relate to lived experiences implicating long-standing emotional issues and a lack of joy, which hardens the heart and creates a narrative around consistent strain and stress. The symptoms of both correlate to the symptoms of a heart attack which involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes. Symptoms of the heart cause the body to feel uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain.
Shifting Behaviors
Learning how to shift behaviors that impact our innate needs for validation, can be difficult. But it does not have to be complicated. Most importantly, by visiting Live to the Beat | Million Hearts you can learn of small yet mighty steps you can take daily to work the important muscles of your heart.
Taking Control of Your Health
We must take active control of our life. Below are a few small but mighty ways to take control of your health:
Modify mindsets,
Control blood pressure,
Manage cholesterol and blood glucose levels,
Move more,
Eat healthier,
Stress less,
Work with their health care team, and
Quit smoking.
Mastering these steps is not always easy. I would strongly consider that as Black people we consider life coaching.
As a life coach, I understand the lived experiences of people of color, specifically individuals who identify as Black. If we go back to Hay's understanding of lived experiences and their correlation to heart conditions, we can see how the narratives play out within the tricky territory of validation.
As a life coach, my aim is to aid clients in fine-tuning the rhythm, or soul assignments, of their hearts and ways to enact sustainable practices that are authentic to them.
Our health is at stake.
Your dreams are at stake but the validation and approval do not have to be set to anti-black standards that squeeze the joy out of you, your life, and your values. You do not have to do this work alone.
Minority Business Summit
Are you registered to attend the AllProfitHR Minority Business Summit to expand the theme to Thriving Authentically? You do not want to miss this dynamic half-day seminar with local minority business owners. Click here to learn more and register.
AllProfitHR Can Help
AllProfitHR helps organizations experience transformational people and culture systems to create a culture of belonging for all. We are a 100% independent, minority, woman-owned HROD firm specializing in the following:
* Diversity and Inclusion Strategy,
* Strategic Human Capital Planning,
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* Change Management & Reengineering Development,
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* Organizational Development,
* Leadership Development & Life Coaching, and
* HR Advisory Services.
Schedule Your Complimentary Discovery Call
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What activities do you participate in to promote a healthy heart?