MEET LIFEXT — AND POWER UP YOUR TEAM!

• Support well-being and resilience

• Combat stress and burnout

• Based on real human relationships

• Best-in-class engagement of this—e movēre, from the Latin word meaning to move outward. To better understand this, let’s explore how emotions crucially connect our brain with our body.

All emotions set off a chain reaction of electrical and chemical signals from the brain, which travel throughout the body along the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Our organs are all programmed to receive these physical signals and have receptors covering their surfaces. This is why a single emotion like stress can trigger signals that result in inflammation and blood platelet activation (tendency toward blood clots), and cause our cells to age more rapidly.

Emotions also affect the function of the brain itself, influencing our ability to focus, our patterns of thought, our levels of energy/motivation, our ability to sleep, and even our appetite.

Which brings us to the final stop on the mind-heart highway: the behaviors triggered by our conscious and unconscious impulses that our emotions influence. Our mental state determines our tendency toward or away from selfcare, our adherence to healthy lifestyle choices, and our likelihood of developing and maintaining a supportive social network.

Research has shown that our personality, which can encompass many of our default ways of reacting to the world, is a risk factor for heart disease.

Many of us might have heard about the link between having a Type A personality and developing heart disease. However, more recent studies have shown that it’s only certain Type A traits that may increase cardiovascular disease risk: depression, anxiety, anger, and hostility are all strong factors increasing the risk of developing heart disease, with depression being the strongest contributing factor.

Here’s the good news: With practice, we can rewire certain aspects of our default patterns of emotional reactivity.

Strengthen Your Heart and Emotional Wellness

The American Heart Association identifies seven primary determinents of cardiovascular health. They include tobacco use, nutritional choices, level of exercise, body composition, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar. Where we fall on the behavior spectrum (e.g., unhealthy vs. healthy, maladaptive vs. adaptive) will determine how many of these indicators we have. Over time these behaviors and shifting parameters can result in heart-related symptoms and adverse health events, or lack thereof.

While we cannot draw neat lines between where our mental health ends and our physical health begins, understanding this connection between our emotional state and health-related behaviors can improve our heart and general health. By learning to become mindfully aware of our inner state, we can literally help protect our hearts. ●