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HOW IS YOUR HEART MY FELLOW STEEMIANS? Hope this Post will help you take care of your precious Heart...

My flesh and my Heart may fail, but God is the strength of my Heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73: 26 NIV

In the book " The Science of the Heart",, it says that

"the heart is not only a pumping mechanism of the body that sustains life, but considered as an access point to a source of wisdom and intelligence that we can call upon to live our lives with more balance, greater creativity and enhanced intuitive capacities."

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The book is An Overview of Research Conducted by the HeartMath Institute.

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This overview will explore intriguing aspects of the science of the heart, much of which is still relatively not well known outside the fields of psychophysiology and neurocardiology.

It is a very informative book with 12 chapters that really explore the functions of the heart to our human body and it's relation to our brain and how it affects our emotions as well as our well being.

To give you more ideas about the book, I have listed down below it's Table of Contents.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Heart-Brain Communication
Resilience, Stress & Emotions
Heart Rate Variability
Coherence
Establishing a New Baseline
Energetic Communication
Intuition Research
Health Outcome Studies
Outcome Studies in Education
Social Coherence
Global Coherence Research
Bibliography

This post is not really a book review but a commentary on how important our heart's function in our human life based on the research and some suggestions on how to take care of our heart and strengthen it for us to enjoy long and healthy life.

If you like to read the whole book you may want to download it here

In the introduction of the book, it says that;

"stressful or depleting emotions such as frustration and overwhelm lead to increased disorder in the higher-level brain centers and autonomic nervous system and which are reflected in the heart rhythms and adversely affects the functioning of virtually all bodily systems."

If this is how it affects all our bodily systems, it is important to really strengthen our heart.

The Bible verse we have says that, "our flesh and our heart may fail", it is then an indication that our heart has it's failing period or has its down moment. Stressful and depleting emotions are the down moments of our heart that needs to be strengthened in order to cope up with these emotions.

Now, how are we going to Strengthen our Heart?

In its physical aspects, our heart needs to be taken cared of by the right way of living or we call it correct lifestyle. Lifestyle, includes our diet or the food we consume and how we take care of our physical body. There are foods that are dangerous to the heart that need to be avoided, and the real Culprit is the Trans Fat that is found in most of the commercial foods we intake.

Trans fat, or trans-unsaturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids, are a type of unsaturated fat that occur in small amounts in nature,[1] but became widely produced industrially from vegetable fats for use in margarine, snack food, packaged baked goods, and frying fast food starting in the 1950s.[2][3] Trans fat has been shown to consistently be associated, in an intake-dependent way, with increased risk of coronary artery disease, a leading cause of death in Western nations.[4]

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Here are the list of foods that are rich in Trans-unsaturated fatty Acids that we must avoid as reported by Dr. John Day in one of his posts on his website http://drjohnday.com:

"The 7 Most Dangerous Foods for Your Heart:"

Pastries-

that contain Trans fat. He advised us to always check the label of every pastry we buy to see if there are partially hydrogenated oils.

Margarine and Shortening

They are the common source of Trans Fat. If we want to avoid them, try to use Olive oil or Coconut oil. These oils are quite expensive but having a heart disease is more expensive. Let us remember- "Prevention is better than Cure."

French Fries and Fried Foods

These are often fried in Trans Fat. Dr. Day advised us to better bake potatoes and Homemade sweet potato fries can be especially healthy.

Chips

It's better to make our own Chips with Olive oil and sea salt. He recommended Kale Chips.

Candy

Candies also may have Trans Fat ingredients, so if we really crave for sweets, he recommended Dark Chocolates. He said that the darker the chocolate the better for it has less sugar added in it.

Frozen Pizzas

Some other hidden ingredients are found in Frozen Pizzas that are harmful to the heart not only Trans Fat according to Dr. Day it is better to make our own Pizza dough recipe using coconut Flour.

Popcorn

Both Microwave and Movie Popcorn contain Trans fat, so he advised us to try the air pop variety at home to enjoy Popcorn in our Movie time.

There are other foods that are risky to the heart, and I think, these are the most commons in our day to day living. So, in order to strengthen our heart we must avoid these dangerous foods.

You may want to explore and do some recipes that are good for the heart here.

Another way to strengthen our heart is by doing daily routine of exercises.

Here are 5 Best Exercises that Are Good for the Heart:

Shared to us by Michele Borboa MS in her website http://www.sheknows.com.

Brisk walking

Running

Swimming

Cycling

Interval or circuit training

Try at least one each day and feel the good result. Me and my wife try to do Brisk walking a day and we are having fun doing it. The next thing we plan to do is Cycling, but this is quite expensive because I have to buy two new Bicycles that are really good for exercise, but I believe it's a good investment for our health.

These are good suggestions in taking care of our heart in its physical aspect. But, how about in its emotional aspect? Remember that as it was mentioned earlier, depleting emotions can affect the health of our heart. Now, how are we going to defeat depleting emotions?

There are two types of Emotions; the Negative and the Positive Emotions: (see the image below)

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The Negatives are the Depleting Emotions that may exhaust our heart such as the ff.

Frustration:

a deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs

Now, this has something to do with dissatisfaction. So, in order to battle this, we must train the habit of thanksgiving. Being thankful of everything we have, expresses satisfaction of whatever we have. We can only enjoy those things we have if we are thankful about them. We will not be frustrated if we could not get those things we desire because we are satisfied of the things we have.

Loneliness

is a complex and usually unpleasant emotional response to isolation. Loneliness typically includes anxious feelings about a lack of connection or communication with other beings, both in the present and extending into the future.

If Loneliness could be a by product of isolation, then to battle this is to be involved in a "Fellowship." Fellowship is a gathering together for the purpose of sharing. Sometimes when we express or share our lonely feelings we release it and by releasing it we are freed from such emotion. So, when you are lonely, avoid being alone it will only prolong the agony. Look for someone or group of people you trust where you can share your feelings and be relieved.

Anxiety

is an emotion characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil, often accompanied by nervous behavior, such as pacing back and forth, somatic complaints, and rumination

This emotion is close associated with the brain function of thought processes, such as anticipation of future threat or untoward incidents, and such thought and emotion affects the heart and some other parts of the body. To combat such emotion, let us focus on God's promises. Promises have something to do with the future, but let us examine God's promises from the past that have been fulfilled. If God fulfilled His promises from the Past towards past generation, then we can hold on to those promises He has for us in the present generation.

The last emotion that I want to discuss is...

Depression

is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behavior, feelings, and sense of well-being.

People that are Depressed feel lonely , hopeless, helpless, dejected, or worthless. They even think thoughts of suicidal because of hopelessness. There are different causes of Depression such as temporary loss of love ones, traumatic childhood experiences and some physical diseases.

Though Depression is a broader subject I just want to limit our discussion to the Temporary kind of Depression. Temporary Depression is easily managed and may not require Medical attention but the prolonged and severe one needs to be treated by Medical Professionals. Now if it's just temporary Depression, such as feeling of hopelessness, in order to defeat such feeling, we just have to put our hope in God. We need to know God more, so that we can put our hope in Him. We can know Him more by reading His Word and by reading or listening to other's testimonies about God. It may also help to read biographies or autobiographies of Successful people who trusted and put their hope in God.

Now let us remember that there is only One Heart we have that beats for life. When this heart stops to beat then our life ends. Let us take care of our heart, for no one else does it but us. Check our lifestyle if it benefits our Heart, if it's not then change it. Check our feelings if they are depleting then change them.

Hope these information and some suggestions may help us in taking care of our Heart. Thanks for your time...God bless!

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