It’s not easy to face the prospect of a heart problem, I genuinely understand. Stay with me while I speak directly to your heart. Will you do that for your heart?
It’s so curious to me that heart disease is the #1 killer of women, curious because there are plenty of early warning signs, and the most curious of all is…it’s reversible, and a heart attack or stroke is preventable!
Why are the statistics so dire, and on the rise? Not to mention it’s completely incongruous with the health coded in every cell.
So I ask myself, what gives? Over the years, I’ve talked to women just like you about it and here’s what I’ve learned, tell me if this rings true for you….
If the doctor hasn’t explicitly said, “You have heart disease”, she doesn’t think she does.
A doctor might say, “Your cholesterol is too high, you’ve got to bring it down.” Or, “Your going to need to take medication if it doesn’t come down.” Or, “I’m concerned that your blood pressure is high, let me write you a prescription to bring it down.”
Or maybe her inflammation or blood sugar is on the rise.
About half the women I work with want to avoid taking medication (especially because it’s implied that it must be taken for life with all the side effects and cost, she often wants to find a more natural option), the other half are scared and they take the medication thinking they’ll find healthier ways. Some find those healthier ways, while others don’t take the time to look.
Any of these early warning signs are pointing directly at heart disease.
Just yesterday a woman said, “I think I’m in denial about this.” I appreciate how honest she decided to be. She’s not the only woman I’ve heard say that. Maybe you have felt that way too.
So, I asked her why she thought she was in denial, and she got quiet for a minute and then said soberly, “Because I’m really scared, terrified to be honest, I don’t want to die and I guess I figure if I don’t think about it, I won’t have to face it.”
I think it’s the “freeze” in the face of fear, of our fight, flight, or freeze nervous system responses, that must be causing the denial.
But here’s the thing about that, the willingness to stay frozen in denial is killing a quarter of women. These women who have lived a lot of years and gathered a lot of wisdom. That wisdom dies with her unshared and unable to be offered to the world.
A world in dire need of wisdom I might add. I didn’t want to be one of those women, and I don’t want you to be one of those women who dies too early leaving parts of yourself unshared.
Is it difficult to thaw the freeze and do what it takes to reverse heart problems and prevent a heart attack or stroke? I wouldn’t say it’s a breeze but it’s not that difficult.
In my view, it’s way more difficult to stay frozen heading down the rabbit hole of pain, suffering, expense, and early death that an untended heart eventually causes.
Would you be willing to be the woman who does what it takes to heal your heart physically, emotionally, and spiritually in order to live the long healthy life you deserve? In order to impart what is yours to impart in this world?
Imparting wisdom can be as simple as being an example to your family and friends of your commitment to creating heart health (remember this is very doable), or as grand as taking your wisdom into the world on a larger scale.
I have come to know in my bones that a healing path is a deeply spiritual path, and we get called to that path. Resisting the call is oh so painful.
The way you do it matters less than THAT you do it.
Another recent conversation I was having with a wonderful woman had to do with how she’s taken on difficult things before in life, but the difference was it was usually for someone else, not herself.
She had to figure out how to raise her kids by herself, take care of an aging parent, put her partner through school, move a project forward for her boss. So, so many examples. And every woman has them.
She was finding it really hard, selfish even, to consider putting so much focus on herself so she could reverse her heart problems.
It seems to be in our DNA as a woman, to take care of others which isn’t a bad thing. We just can no longer leave ourselves out of the equation. Period. Or the outcome is dire.
Here’s the thing, nobody can do much for another unless it’s from a full cup. This is a core teaching in every spiritual path. One that SO many spirit-centered women seem to miss.
Going to the gym, getting manicures, or girls nights are nice, but they are drops in a bucket compared to the call of your heart to fill your cup fuller.
What if the fatigue, the pain, the anxiety and tension, the shortness of breath, the rising heart markers are early warning signs (such as cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, inflammation) and are trying hard to get your attention that something needs to change?
What if they are intelligent messages to show you how to fill your cup and lead you back to your whole, healed self? Doesn’t it make more sense to listen rather than ignore? To open rather than stay frozen?
It made a difference in my own health, when I stopped ignoring and started listening, the early warning signs of heart disease completely reversed.
What if everything that matters to you such as being around for your children and grandchildren’s milestones, having energy again to do the things that matter to you, no longer being afraid of your body and her symptoms, getting a good night’s sleep, getting rid of pain and even medication, and to find, and live from your peaceful center…is calling you to it?
When we’re in denial, we don’t believe those things are possible. But when we choose to not be in denial, and we make a decision to live and to thrive, the path opens to us. Not the whole path, but the next step on the path.
Most of us do a good job of convincing ourself that if we can’t see the whole path then forget it. But if you think back, it almost always goes like this:
- We see the problem
- We know we want a solution
- We make a decision to get the solution even though we’re not sure how (can’t see the whole path but we want the outcome bad enough to move forward anyway)
- That decision provides the next step. Then the next. Until eventually, we walk ourself smack dab, face-to-face with the solution.
- And the solution works.
- Now, not only are we free of the problem, we are a better version of ourself for transforming it.
Would you say, when looking back on your successful outcomes, that’s a reasonable overview? I’m not saying there weren’t twists and turns on the path, but rather you eventually got there because it mattered to you that you did.
Notice it’s the “decision” that shows us the next step. It’s the decision that absorbs the denial.
It’s only scary if we stay stuck and frozen. It’s not scary when we say “yes” to putting one foot in front of the other. That’s even easier with support. That’s the support I offer women.
Fear can’t fight steps. It just can’t. It will try, but as long as you keep taking a step, you will walk yourself right into heart health.
Fear fears change. Yet changes are needed to reverse heart disease. Small steps, regularly taken, cause the change needed to not die before your time.
Staying frozen is deadly. Moving heals. Healing adds years to your life, and life to your years.
One step at a time is all you need to do. Really.
After gathering years of research, talking with cardiologists, and working with many women, I’ve found that there are 7 primary steps that are important to reversing heart disease.
A few of these steps are the ones that are everywhere like heart healthy nutrition, supplements, and regular movement. But other steps aren’t even talked about in mainstream medicine such as emotional or psychological healing, let alone a woman’s deeper connection with the Source of all Life. Which happens to be centered in the heart!
Will you say “Yes” to your heart?
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