12 Ways To Keep Your Heart Healthy And Happy - Get Ahead

Do all of these as part of your daily routine and you will have a fine heart that will keep beating strong for years!

September 29 is World Heart Day and it would be the right time to take a moment to check how your heart is doing and feeling!

Have you been kind to it and given it all the love and attention it deserves; or has your heart been ignored?

Your heart is the centre of your whole system; and here's what you can do to keep it happy and healthy:

1. Strengthen the muscles of your heart by getting regular exercise

As with other muscles, your heart muscles become strong when they are made to contract and release repeatedly at a fast pace.

This keeps your heart beating nicely. It also burns away any accumulated fat that could deposit in your arteries that leads to heart attacks. Keep the pipe lines clean!

Pick one activity from here, and do it six days a week for 30 minutes:

• Walk
• Jog
• Run
• Cycle
• Swim
• Aerobics/zumba/kick boxing
• Active sport (football, tennis, badminton; etc)

2. Eat heart healthy foods like avocado, oatmeal, salmon, olive oil, nuts, berries, pure chocolate (100 per cent), legumes and spinach. Make one of these a part of every meal.

3. Cut out the ugly artery clogging fried foods, oily foods, processed foods and artificial sugars.

4. Have a cup of coffee/green tea. Both have anti-ageing properties.

5. Have a glass of red wine (1 glass per day max). More anti-ageing!

6. Meditate. This reduces stress levels and makes the heart pump normally. Even 10 minutes a day can be of much good.

7. Do one enjoyable activity every day. A crossword; phone your best friend; read a book; watch a comedy show; anything that is happy and positive.

8. Get your annual health check-up.

9. Plan a daily routine that makes you happy and stick to it. This lowers stress caused by disarray.

10. De-clutter! Your house, your desk, the cupboards, people who cause you upset, foods that are not good for you, thoughts that are of no good... get all the clutter out!

11. Disconnect! Take time off from your phone, computer, TV and mental hang ups.

Relax your body and mind.

12. Light candles, play happy music, spray your house with scents. Your environment affects your mood.

Photograph: Mike Baird from Morro Bay, USA/bairdphotos.com/Wikimedia Commons

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