Many National and International organizations consider February Heart Month.
Their focus is to generate funds and to promote, encourage, and support us to live happy, healthy lives. The campaign espouses conscious awareness of eating habits, physical activity habits, and stress-inducing habits, including that nasty habit called “work.” They encourage healthy-heart habits so we can be active, productive, and successful members of society.
I suggest we add another healthy-heart habit of consistently sharing love with everyone we meet. Maybe that’s where Cupid fits in.
In Roman mythology, Cupid was the god of love and was deemed to have set the universe in motion. Depicted as a handsome and playful youth, he flew around shooting invisible love arrows. Anyone hit immediately experienced irrevocable love.
I believe irreversible and everlasting love can set our universe in motion. That’s what happened for me. Love allows us to experience immense joy, happiness, and success in all areas of life.
If love comes from the heart, it seems a wise choice to take care of the precious love machine in our chest as promoted this month.
As mentioned above, it’s about habits. Most of us live largely by unconscious habits. We sleep on the same side of the bed, brush our teeth and hair with the same strokes and order, button our shirt up or button it down, put the left leg into our pants first, then the right or vice versa. We have tons of these habits that help us do mundane tasks without much thought.
Because of perceived workplace demands, we may develop work habits that throw our state of balance out of whack, such as:
- going to the office one or two hours early
- skipping mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks
- reducing or eliminating lunch breaks
- working late into the evening, and
- working on weekends.
Statistics show that people are working more hours per week than ever in history. How do these work habits affect our other living habits?
“I don’t have time for proper meals. I grab a coffee and donut on the way to work. A quick burger and fries is all I have time for at lunch. I skip supper and snack when I get home.”
“Yeah, I know I should exercise. I’ll start an exercise program soon.” (Does soon come before or after November? And what year?)
“I know I should take quality relationship time with my life-partner, children, and friends. But I just don’t have time.”
Do any of these sound familiar for you?
Many people make their life choices based upon their work. Yes, work is important, however if we sacrifice our personal relationships and destroy our bodies for work, we’ve missed the point of life.
Work will always be there. Even if you lose your job or business, there is always work for those who want it.
Our bodies and relationships are much more fragile. If we drop them, they break.
If we abuse and atrophy our bodies, we may find ourselves spending our work-won wealth to gain back our health – at least so we can function. Often it takes a stress-induced heart attack, stroke, or sickness to teach us this lesson.
If we mistreat and obliterate our relationships, we may end up feeling sick, lonely, frustrated, resentful, and angry. Dis-heartened? Interesting description!
I believe that building and enhancing our relationships is the most important work we can do. With healthy, happy relationships, the rest will fall in order.
So my challenge for you, should you choose to accept it, is to employ Heart Month to consciously accelerate that love machine into high gear. Here are thoughts to consider:
– Determine your most important relationships. Who are the people you want in your life – the ones that help your ticker to twitter? Write their names on a list – no more than 6 or 8 names. Put your own name as the first one. Loving yourself is critical. If you can’t love yourself, you’ll never be able to love anyone else.
– Evaluate your work habits. Do these habits support you to build and nurture your important relationships? Are you using work as an excuse – to avoid being with, and communicating with those important people? Can you establish boundaries for yourself in regard to your work – to ensure ample high-quality relationship time? Set reasonable expectations for what you will accomplish each day. Plan for success.
– Evaluate your eating habits. Are you eating healthy-heart foods in an amount that elevate your health? If not, what eating habits are you going to consciously develop? The media is full of hints this month, or check with a nutritionist. Eating properly ensures passion, vitality, and stamina. Work with those important people and support each other to establish new eating habits.
– Evaluate your physical fitness habits. You can start an exercise program or simply get outside and walk. Invite those important people to join you. Go skating, skiing, or tobogganing. The possibilities are endless. These activities get the blood pumping and I guarantee you’ll have opportunities to laugh. Laughing is incredible exercise.
A long-term commitment to these challenges will ensure your ticker-in-the-chest will boom and bloom in a variety of ways. You’ll experience more love, joy, and happiness. You’re relationships will flourish. You’ll feel energized, alive, and alert. And you’ll have the physical and mental strength to excel in your work – to accomplish far more in less time.
Creating new habits takes conscious thought and focus, and the benefits can be cosmic. Start now and Cupid’s arrows will surely fly your way.
Why wait for spring? Do it now. And persist – just for the health of it.