This and that: Heart Healthy

Heart Healthy

Today is the last day of February, the shortest month. February is also Heart Healthy month. It seems to me that this month contradicts itself as Valentine's Day is this month with all it's chocolates and candies and then we have Heart Healthy. I guess if we ate low or no sugar candies and dark chocolate we may be on the right path. If you are anything like me then you don't like dark chocolate ~ I guess it is to healthy for me.

Last week I wrote an article for the Daily Dish about February is Heart Healthy. In this article I wrote about the foods to eat to help your heart and what to do per the American Heart Association to keep your heart healthy. So I won't go into any more details about those things. This article is going to be about keeping a healthy emotional well-being.

To me having a healthy emotional well-being is the first step to having a healthy heart. As loving yourself and feeling proud of yourself and your accomplishments will only help to make your heart stronger. Eating good food and exercise are only part of the whole picture.

Things to do to help your emotional well-being

Express your emotions - allow yourself to feel both positive and negative emotion. Do not bottle these emotions up.
Focus on the positive. A tip to help with this is to everyday write down three things you are grateful for. They need not be big, they may just be getting out of bed today, seeing the sun.
Respect and Accept Yourself. We need to love ourselves unconditionally as we love others around us. We are in most instances our own worse enemy.
Practice yoga, meditation and or deep breathing. This allows us to find peace, energy and improve our concentration.
Enjoy some alone time. Take and make time for yourself even if it is only a few minutes during the day. Lock yourself in the bathroom ( your children will probably still be at the door when you open it).
Foster creativity. Start a hobby. This is my way of stress reduction, writing my blog and reading other blogs. Other things you can do is crafts, gardening, exercise (if that is your thing), cooking.
Avoid black and white thinking. You may have to think outside of the box. Often thinking things are either right or wrong my bring disappointing.
Laugh loud and often. Laughter is always the best medicine even if it is at at time that you don't think is appropriate.

These are just a few of the ideas that I remember after reading an article about this in our local newspaper. During the winter months, I feel that my emotional well being takes a big drop. My thoughts are this happens because we don't see the sun so much, it is cold and we are stuck inside. It is important for you whole well being to try and keep your emotional well being in check When you do feel that you have depression like symptoms or just feeling down, it is important to talk to someone, be it your family doctor or a close loved one, or even someone you don't know. I have often written my feelings on articles that I have read in other blogs, this helps me to get them in the open. It is not that they need to be read or even commented on but it is my way of doing my well-being check for me.

Heart Healthy~ Avocado Salad

1 Avocado cut in slices and each slice cut into two or three

2 -3 Roma tomatoes sliced

1/4 cup sliced red onions

1/4 lb smoked salmon

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy. You can add some salt and pepper to taste.

This salad is very tasty on it's own and is a good lunch meal with a slice of French Bread. The first time I ate this salad was when my husband made it in Togo, shortly after we got married. All the ingredients were fresh and he went and bought us a loaf of fresh made French Bread... Heaven.

Let us all take some time to treat ourselves

Let me know what you have done for yourself today

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ Marlys

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`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links: Gluten Free Fridays