3 Ways Your Emotions Can Support Your Heart Health
By practicing presence, naming how we feel, and focusing on positive emotions, we can add to our toolbox for a strong and supported heart.
Over time, our hearts are literally shaped by our emotions and moods. Just as we now know we can rewire our brain’s connections using specific practices (a process known as neuroplasticity), the structure and function of the heart may undergo changes in response to our emotions: one form of a process known as cardiac plasticity.
3 Ways Your Emotions Can Support Your Heart Health
With mindfulness, we can add to our toolbox for a strong and supported heart. Here are three mindful ways to support your heart heath:
1. Notice What’s Present
We can commit to developing awareness of emotions in the body through the regular practice of mindfulness of emotions and body sensations.
2. Expand Emotional Intelligence
We can work to improve our emotional literacy—our own vocabulary of feelings that can adequately describe our inner experience. This takes practice and may require help from others.
3. Respond With Intention
We can become an active agent in choosing our emotional reactions to everyday events. We can also cultivate nurturing and self-sustaining positive feelings—including optimism, gratitude, and empathy—and commit to practicing the skills of navigating challenging emotions with a sense of curiosity and self-compassion.
About The Author
Dr. Jonathan Fisher is a cardiologist who focuses on healing the heart in the broadest sense, encompassing both the physical and emotional aspects of cardiac care. Educated at Harvard and Mt. Sinai, he is a mindfulness meditation teacher and organizational well-being leader. Reflecting on his journey, he shares, “I took care of 20,000 other hearts before taking care of my own.”
His experience with anxiety and burnout has transformed his approach to health. Dr. Fisher has designed programs for an organization with 38,000 team members, reducing stress and enhancing well-being. He has delivered keynotes, workshops, and retreats for organizations globally across various industries. His efforts in addressing burnout in healthcare have garnered international attention, including co-founding the Ending Clinician Burnout Global Community and organizing the world’s first global summit dedicated to ending clinician burnout, with over a thousand participants from 43 countries.
Named on Charlotte Magazine’s “Best Doctors” list, he is a regular contributor to Mindful.org. He resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife, three children, and two doodles. His mission is to help others ‘train the mind and heal the heart.’
His best-selling first book, Just One Heart: A Cardiologist’s Guide to Healing, Health, and Happiness, is about harnessing the power of the mind-heart connection.
