As most of you already know, I have lived through two tough
years with serious health issues. Thank the Lord that I have
survived cancer and a stroke. What this has taught me is
that despite my prior beliefs, I am NOT invincible. I
face life with a different attitude and have adopted changes
to help me live a longer and happier life.
In February, our thoughts are turned to the romantic
side of our hearts. Love, flowers and candy dominate
the days leading up to Valentine's Day. We all
enjoy every aspect of the holiday, but we should also
remember to care for our own hearts.
So, for the remainder of this month I plan to
incorporate the tips I have learned on my own path
to better heart health. The first tip I want to share
is the importance of managing stress. I will admit that
I have not always been successful at doing this. I
have been forced to deal with some pretty rough
patches in life despite my illnesses. In order to
preserve my health and be happier, I have been
focusing on changing my perspective and the way I
view things to shrug off the negative feelings. The
best way I have discovered is to stop everything and
breathe. I found a wonderful app that I have added to
my iPhone called iBreathe. It's a free app, and you
can set it to remind yourself to breathe and how long
to hold the breath and how many reps you want to
perform. It's easy and it has helped me enormously.
So now, whenever I feel the stress creeping up, I
just stop and breathe. It works wonders!
Love,
Susan and Oliver
