TAKING CARE OF YOUR HEART
By Sarah Larson, Community Health Educator
Our hearts are constantly working and beating to keep us going, so it’s important that we take care of them.
Five tips to have a healthy heart include: (1) eat heart-healthy snacks like fruit and nuts and reduce sodium intake, (2) attend regular check-ups to monitor your heart health, (3) quit smoking or vaping, (4) move more, (5) manage stress.
Did you know that managing stress is important to having a healthy heart? Stress can increase our blood pressure and make it more difficult to make healthy choices that affect our heart. What do you do to manage stress? Sometimes, we aren’t even aware of the impact that stress has on us or that we are going through a stressful time. This month, learn a new way to address stress by attending a yoga or a yoga nidra session with Shena Matrious. When practiced regularly, yoga has been shown to reduce anxiety, depression, and stress, and improve sleep and overall wellbeing.
So, what is yoga? It’s a way to move your body gently that can help you to feel grounded by connecting the body, mind, and spirit. What about yoga nidra? Well, if you like to lay down and relax, this is a great opportunity! It’s also a great opportunity if you find it difficult to relax or have difficulty slowing down your brain. Yoga nidra is a guided practice that allows you to enter a state of complete relaxation. Yoga nidra can help to reduce stress and improve sleep. Matrious will guide you through this relaxation process. After the session, you may notice that your body and mind feel lighter and that you feel more grounded. If you’ve never done meditation or yoga — no problem! These sessions don’t require any experience or background knowledge. You’ll have to try it for yourself. With support from the SHIP grant, all sessions are free of charge for participants, and there will be a prize drawing at every session. Keep an eye out on the new Health and Human Services Facebook page to find out dates and times that sessions will be offered in your district. Or reach out to Sarah Larson at sarah. larson@hhs.millelacsband-nsn.gov or call 320-630-3115.
