Credit: BigStockPhoto.com
We have the ability to emote our in-depth feelings in many forms – like by being happy, sad, angry, or by exhibiting tens of other emotions. These varieties of emotions do have an impact on our mental and physical state, more so, the heart, which is considered as the seat of emotions.
In our modern day life, we experience all kinds of stresses that make us vent out negative emotions in form of irritation, frustration, disappointment, remorse, aggression, contempt, rage, or envy, and even lead us to states of depression that give a heart sinking feeling, creating erratic heart rhythm patterns. It only makes sense to conclude that practicing the opposite with positive emotions would lead to heart wellness or heart-uplifting feelings with harmonious heart rhythms.
A clinical research by the Canadian Nova Scotia Health Survey as published in the European Heart Journal concludes that heart diseases can be prevented by increasing positive emotions, which indirectly help us in improving our sleep habits, heart rate regulation, and even cause cessation of negative influences like smoking. People who are usually happy, and habitually experience emotions like enthusiasm, excitement, happiness, and joy have less chance of developing heart diseases in comparison to those who generally are unhappy and resort to negative emotions.
Positive emotions service and cleanse our heart and mind of all the negative energy that obstruct our personal growth and make the heart unhealthy. People who make positive emotions a part of their mental set, attitude, habit, and as a default emotional state in everyday life are less venerable to stress. In fact, such people are able to cope much better with any stressful situation and use positive emotions as a protective shield effectually to diminish the chances of developing a heart disease.
Dr. Karina Davidson of Columbia University in New York, the co-author of this research emphasizes that everyone should include some amount of pleasurable activities in their day-to-day life routine. It could be something which gives you peace of mind and a sense of contentment like indulging in hobbies like gardening, reading interesting novels, listening to favorite music or even socializing with friends and relatives, and having a great laugh and time together.
While more research and experiments are underway to establish and prove relationships about how positive emotions affect and service our heart or cardiovascular system, we already have in place many stress management and control programs that teach us the ways to reduce negativity. There are workshops and life coaching skills that address the concerns of home-work life balance to root out the resulting stress factors and induce effective strategies to pursue positive emotions.
The ancient civilizations had come up with techniques like meditation to counter negative feelings and sprout happiness from within, thus negating the factors responsible for increase of stress hormone levels, blood vessel constriction, and higher blood pressure. No matter whether you follow the ancient or the modern approaches, one thing is sure that practicing good attitude with a positive outlook creates positive emotions that can service and protect your heart.
