OPTIMIZE YOUR HEALTH
Living a Heart Healthy Lifestyle

Risky Thoughts and Heart Health
By Ryan Seay, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist

What do you think of when someone mentions heart disease? Generally, we think of poor diet, little or no exercise, sedentary life style, and heart attacks. All of those would be correct, but there is something else making a major contribution to the coronary heart disease profile. Research reveals that negative emotions are significantly correlated to heart disease.

Experts in Mind-Body Medicine have known for decades that our emotional state of mind impacts our physical state of being. We know that thoughts come before emotions and those feelings of anger, hostility, and stress put a choke-hold on our body’s natural ability to function optimally. Learning to recognize negative feelings and the thoughts can be the first step towards improving your heart health.

There are many ways to increase positive thinking. The key is to be aware of your thoughts, or “think about thinking”. One practice technique is to keep an appreciation log. At the end of every day, write in a journal one thing that you appreciated during the day. This will help you focus on positive aspects throughout the day, since you will need to write one in your journal.

Another practice technique is by being aware of your emotions. If you are experiencing a negative emotion, then you know you just had a negative thought. Since emotions follow thoughts, you will be able to “catch” yourself having a negative thought, and consciously change to a more positive thought.

Lastly, give yourself a break. Many times we hold ourselves to an extremely high standard. We need to be more forgiving towards ourselves. By practicing the above techniques, you will improve the number of times you have positive thoughts throughout the day. A positive attitude will go a long way towards a healthy heart.

—February 2007

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