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Toward Wholeness Blog

Writer's pictureRichard Dahlstrom

Heart Health for the Holidays

I’ll be writing about some weightier matters here soon, but for this week, as the holiday season begins, I want to invite you to a life of joy and gratitude by taking your heart's health seriously.  One of the most famous verses in the Bible is Proverbs 4:23 which exhorts us to ‘guard our hearts’ and elevates that as a high priority.  While that’s typically read by evangelicals as a call to stay away from unhealthy sexual exploits, I believe it applies much more broadly.  


Science has learned that the vagus nerve controls much of our capacity to move away from the chronic ‘fight or flight’ state of being which characterizes much of our civilization, particularly during election seasons and their immediate aftermath.  Throw in financial pressures, holiday stressors, and worries about the future, and you have the perfect cocktail for chronic stress, with all its cortisol, compromised sleep, and elevated blood pressure, just to mention a few of the heart health challenges that come with this moment.  


Getting stuck in chronic stress mode not only affects heart health, it also robs you of your capacity to be fully present as a person of joy, with the capacity to serve and bless your family, friends, neighbors and world.  As the saying goes, ‘it’s no good lighting yourself on fire in your attempt to warm others.’ So take care of yourself, and one of the ways you can do that is by guarding your heart through practices known to strengthen your vagus nerve, and thus your capacity to escape chronic stress mode and move into a physiological place of rest and peace.  Here are eight of Christopher Bergland’s vagus nerve practices for heart health, and a word about how you can apply some or all of these in your life during the holiday season: 


  1. Breathe Properly.  For those wanting to do a deep dive into this, here’s a book that I found to be life changing.  I practice slow breathing from the diaphragm every morning during my forest faith meditation practice, and it slows my pulse and lowers my blood pressure, not to mention that it grounds me in the realities that I am a) the recipient of gifts from God b) rooted and grounded in God’s unconditional love, c) connected with people, animals, and creation, all of which are sustained by God, and d) called in unique and specific ways to bless the world.  Just five minutes of this forest faith meditation has proven to be sustaining for me.  

  2. Tonic levels of daily physical activity, which simply means ‘sitting is the new smoking’ which simply means if you can go for a walk, find an aerobics video to work with so your heart rate elevates, or do a little jump rope, or snowshoe, ski, sled, lift weights… everything will be better.  Exercise is a stress buster if done at the right level (not too hard or too easy).  The book ‘Spark’ will help you understand more if a want to go deeper. 

  3. Face to Face social connections simply means spend some time being physically present with people, not just present online or on the phone.  Eye contact, human touch, and even the transfer of soul energy from one person to another is something all of us need, even though some of us are introverted or, for various reasons, also resist human connection.  Those who are intentional about being fully present with others on a regular basis are contributing to heart health.  

  4. Gutsy third person self-talk and narrative expressive journaling are Berglund’s ways of inviting you to a journaling habit for self awareness.  My way is to invite you to prayer journaling as a way of helping you pour out your heart to your creator; your fears, hopes, joys, protests, questions.  The very act of naming this stuff becomes life giving. 

  5. Sense of Awe comes, of course, not just by seeking out beauty in creation, or film, or a concert, or a beautifully prepared meal.  It’s also true that the beauty is all around us if we would simply shut of the devices, slow our breath, open our eyes and ears, and receive the beauty of the room, the smells, the lights (especially the lights this time of year) and the sounds (of rain on the roof, animals, even the beauty of silence). Pay attention to the present moment, live in it, respond with gratitude.  I’ve cut back on news and media dramatically since returning from Europe and elevated silence, reading, and face to face conversations in candlelight.  I am the richer for it. 

  6. Loving Kindness Meditation is something I engage in by praying for others, asking God to bless and sustain them, and praying that they may taste and know God’s peace. 

  7. Volunteering and Generativity.  These elements, translated into my spirituality language, mean that you have been blessed to be a blessing, so find ways to bless, encourage, and serve others in this broken world.  Volunteer.  Open your home.  Throw a party.  Mentor others younger than you. Join a book club, or start one.  Did you know that there are lonely people all around you who will warm to your invitation for relationship?  If you’re already maxed out relationally, good for you!  Keep investing.  As I began living into retirement I quickly discovered that I’m not still here on this planet to just consume.  Even in my senior years, I have gifts to give and I’m quickly learning that I am at my heart healthiest when I use these gifts in response to God’s call.  

  8. Gratitude.  Finally, I note that a major theme in the Bible is that we are made, literally and biologically, to express gratitude.  Romans 1 tells us that if we refuse to give thanks, we set in motion a whole host of pathologies that are a direct result of our ingratitude.  I encourage you to read Psalm 103:1-5 and let ‘don’t ever forget all God’s benefits’ jump off the page for you, because no matter whether the last four years, or the last four weeks have been challenging for you politically, the reality is that all of us have received gifts, ranging from clean water, to education, to people in our lives caring for us, to friendships, food, shelter, a measure of health, a number of days on this planet, encounters with beauty, justice, mercy, and (I believe) a creator who loves every created being and pours out gifts to ignite worship and gratitude.  So wake up and pay attention.  If you see, or smell, or taste, or hear something today, say something:  say Thank You to the Giver of Every Good and Perfect Gift.   


Happy Thanksgiving.  May you guard your heart, in order that you might taste your food, be present with others, see the gifts raining down all around, and become a person of gratitude and joy in the process.  

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