Courageous living and loving

The word "courage" is derived from French word for heart, "coeur", and etymologically it means "the ability to stand by ones heart. This month is an especially auspicious time to bring attention to the health of your heart and to choose to serve, celebrate and circulate the vitality and power that "standing" with your heart brings to every aspect of life.

If you are looking for an incentive to add more practices to your heart healthy lifestyle the mind-body connection to heart health is direct and compelling and may serve to inspire a conscious movement towards greater giving, "lighter" living and loving every chance we get!

Add "inner jogging" to your daily exercise plan; The American College of Cardiology reports that laughter "performed" 15 minutes a day may help with reducing the risk for heart disease. If you are looking to turn away heart disease then move towards laughter as people with heart disease were 40% less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease. Look for the lighter and brighter side to life as people with heart disease tend to respond less humorously to life's everyday challenges (opportunities)-generally laugh less and display more anger and hostility too according to research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Laughter appears to support heart health by aiding in blood vessel health. Look for "wellness windows" all around your daily life practice; embracing your inner child can initiate "inner jogging", laugh at yourself, make fun of your fears, learn to play and invite others to play with you-laughter is a gift, give it to yourself and the world around every chance you have. Daring to find and embrace the lighter with laughter is a trust walk that can be most empowering for your spirit and your heart! Laughter is great fuel for optimism.

Attitude is everything, and according to research from Harvard, choosing to be an optimist may be as powerful as choosing to eat a heart healthy diet when it comes to protecting yourself from heart disease. In a study published in Psychosomatic Medicine, participants who were classified as optimists were half as likely to develop heart disease than those who were defined as pessimists. If you are looking to boost your outlook and your heart health than consider the practice of seeing the world and your place in it as conspiring for your greater good, actively affirming this greater good with your actions, with prayer and meditation.

More meditation if you wish to please your mind, "heart" and spirit; the Medical College of Georgia showed that meditation may help with protecting against heart disease and stroke; besides lowering blood pressure, meditation may also help to reduce cholesterol, improve the functioning of blood vessel walls and possibly reduce atherosclerosis. You can increase the healthy heart benefits of your meditation practice by combining it with yoga; according to Yale University, the combination of yoga and meditation practiced at least 3x per week may help to lower the risk for heart disease and high blood pressure. When stress "urges" small thinking and living-you can choose to interrupt a well worn pattern of constriction and narrow-mindedness with mindful movement and breathing as it can be "opening" for new thought as well as your blood vessels which in turn may be helpful in finding peace and balance.

High blood pressure often accompanies the morning and evening commute, if you are looking for a way to share the ride with your higher self than simply focus on breathing from your belly rather than your chest, as this will promote the reduction of unhealthy stress hormones and the lowering of your blood pressure too.

Feed your heart by giving and receiving love; studies from Yale and Duke show that both men and women who felt the most loved and supported as well as feeling that their love was appreciated by loved ones had substantially less blockage in their coronary arteries-love benefits both giver and receiver with lower rates of heart disease. The heart benefits with the healing values of love, intimacy, community, compassion, forgiveness, kindness and service.

Making the commitment to be unselfish with your love and courageously expressing your hearts energy with enthusiastic passion may be one of the most loving self serving acts that we can commit-as expressing love benefits both giver and receiver and can help both to live a longer, healthier and more fulfilled life-if want to heal the world? Express love and live courageously!