The Heart Healthy Lifestyle

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