This wise counsel is from Dr. Ester Buchholz, author of The Call of Solitude. She describes solitude like this as “meaningful alone-time” – a powerful need and a necessary tonic in today’s rapid-fire world. Indeed, she maintains that solitude “actually allows us to connect to others in a far richer way”.
She likely didn’t write that as specific advice for those of us living with heart disease, but it struck me when I read her words that, although they are probably very true for all women, they are especially applicable to heart patients.
Were you “born to walk”?
That’s the little blurb I wrote for Oregon cardiologist Dr. James Beckerman’s new book, Heart To Start.* As explained in last week’s book excerpt published here, Dr. B believes that heart disease is essentially a sitting disease. To rally against that, he embraces a profound belief that “exercise is medicine” – and this is especially important for all of us heart patients. In fact, he believes that physical exercise is the least prescribed yet most effective heart treatment. Far too many of us, however, get little or no regular physical activity – particularly while recuperating from a cardiac event – and instead insist on doing something that just might be dangerous to our health: we sit.
When Oregon cardiologist Dr. James Beckerman sent me a copy of his new book called Heart To Start and asked me to review it, I agreed – but I have to tell you that it took me a month to actually open it and read it. These days, I’m often invited to review heart-related books of fairly dubious quality, so I tend to be a wee bit wary when taking on another review. But I’d already been following Dr. B for some time on Twitter, and I’d even quoted him in this 2013 blog article – so part of me really, really hoped I would like his new book.
Let’s make our day harder – not easier!
Canadian physician Dr. Mike Evans – known to 3.6 million people as the creator of the video-gone-viral 23 1/2 Hours – has done it again. Here’s his 4-minute take on what he calls our “generational case of sitting disease”. In a modern world obsessed with making things easier, consider his new movement to start making each day harder for better health – especially important in both preventing and treating cardiovascular disease. Watch it now – Enjoy . . .
Q: How have you built in little ways to make your day a bit harder?