Just two days into short February, we focus our attention on this furry little fellow, the animal world’s weatherman, Punxsutawney Phil.
And, due to the bright glow cast by dozens of news camera lights simultaneously focused upon him, Phil always sees his shadow, offering us six more weeks of Winter.
There are also two president’s birthdays, now merged into one holiday known as President’s Day. But some of us remember when we celebrated each separately. Abe Lincoln’s on the 12th and George Washington’s on the 22nd? It was a school kid’s delight having two four-day weeks in one short month.
And of course, on the 14th, we have the romance day of the year ~ Valentine’s Day ~ when we give (and hopefully receive) cards, candy and flowers, professing heartfelt feelings and desires for loved ones.
Now before you start thinking too much about whether or not February really does have more holidays and special days than any other month, I would like you to stay focused on those heart-shaped candies in the picture above. No, not because they are sugary little treats that take us back to our childhoods. But rather, because they are indeed hearts. And it is our Hearts that I would like to talk about today.In my work as a Holistic Life Coach, I invite people to “Create a Brighter Future, Honoring the Heart of Who You Are”. At our women’s retreats, I encourage our participants to quietly connect with their Center ~ their Heart ~ to “hear” what they Truly Need, to learn the truth of what is really important to them.
But today, I am asking you to not only Honor the Heart of Who you Are, but also to Honor, to Connect with, and to really Pay Attention to How you Care for your actual Heart. You know, that miraculous, beating organ within each of us that makes it possible for us to physically exist here on Mother Earth.
This week, Sunday, February 1 through Saturday, February 7, is Women’s Heart Week. Sponsored by the Women’s Heart Foundation, since 1995, the first week of February has been dedicated to raising public awareness and educating women about Heart Disease, the number one killer of American women.
Surprised? I was too.
Like many women, I thought Heart Disease was primarily a man’s disease, and that our biggest health threat came from cancer. But, as I learned on the website of The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, “Since 1984, more women than men have died of heart disease each year.”
On the Mayo Clinic’s Women’s Health page, I found out that Heart Disease is responsible for more women’s death than all forms of cancer combined. I was shocked. For years, women's health focus has been on breast cancer and uterine cancer. How is it that I did not know that heart disease is just as much of a concern. In fact, even more.
According to the Women’s Heart Foundation website (womensheart.org),
“Heart disease is America’s leading killer of women over the age of 34. Most women are not aware of this fact and fail to recognize their own risk factors for heart disease. Women's symptoms, especially those that are milder, often go ignored. Women often miss out on critical opportunities to save their own lives.... Women are busier than ever as they juggle career, family and care-giving responsibilities. For many, each day resembles a jig-saw puzzle in which a women is required to piece together her time and obligations. Now, more than ever, women need to take time out for themselves and be given a reminder: Take Care of Your Heart.”
Take care of your heart; take care of yourself! This simple statement is so difficult for our feminine spirit to really take to heart. I can remember my mother, who never held a job outside our home, but out-worked my father every day. Her workday began at 5:30 ~ before anyone else was awake; and it ended well past my bedtime of 9:30. I would hear her downstairs getting things ready for the morning while my father sat watching TV and/or reading the newspaper.
Now add to those household responsibilities the full-time job that most women hold today, plus helping our kids with homework and getting them to extra-curricular activities. Or maybe, you're part of the "sandwich generation" ~ age 40 to 60 ~ trying to take care of your own household while helping out your elderly parents, by running errrands and helping with maintaining their home. Add on the other end of that generational chain a couple of your own grandchildren to help out with, and where do you have any free time ~ any down time ~ to call your own. By the way, there's actually a Sandwich Generation month ... July 1-31 ... with an official website authored by the Sandwich Generation Resource Group. It offers resources for family members and caregivers of older adults and those living with disabilities. Find the link under my "Women's Heart Health Links".
Are you wondering at this point if my purpose here is to make you feel even more overwhelmed than you already feel? As I just re-read that last paragraph, I felt overwhelmed. And overwhelm can often lead us to feeling depressed, which makes us just want to lie down. Or feeling depressed can also often lead us to the kitchen, searching for some of those yummy comfort foods, which are often high in cholesterol. My favorite used to be a bag of the latest exciting flavor of Doritos.
But actually, it's all of the above ~ the overdoing, feeling overwhelmed, overeating and under-exercising, that are just some of the major reasons that Women now claim Coronary Heart Disease, which causes heart attack, as the leading cause of death for American Women. (See the American Heart Association link for more heart disease risk factors.)
So what can we do to change this statistic? First and foremost, we can't let the fear factor allow us to turn away from these realities, to ignore the facts and think it won't happen to me.
As we did with combating breast cancer and STDs, we must start to educate ourselves, our partners, our friends and family. We need to dispel the myths about heart disease being a man's disease. We need to understand how the symptoms for a heart attack for women are different than for men. We just need to know more and spread the word. And that's what this week ~ the first week of February ~ is all about.
Now, I know I have thrown a lot of information at you today. But I also know that the feminine spirit has the capacity to meet any challenge, once we understand what that challenge is. Now that you have more information and more resources to gain a better understanding of our challenge, I have one more thing I would like you to do. This one is pretty easy.
I would like you to "Go Red".
"Go Red" is a movement to bring awareness to Women's Heart Disease by wearing the color red on February 6th. That's this Friday. For more detailed information about this colorful women's movement, visit the Go Red for Women website, also listed on the sidebar under the Women's Heart Health Links.
All of this information boils down to one bottom line ... to the Heart of What Matters. We need to shift our thinking.
Maybe February's most memorable date shouldn't be Valentine's Day on the 14th. Indeed, if we are busy recovering from a heart attack, the last thing we need is a box of chocolates. Maybe the color red and the heart symbol that we now associate with Valentine's Day should also connect us to this week of caring for our own physical hearts and the hearts of all of those women who we care about. That way, we all can be here to receive those Valentine's cards and flowers.
Why, even Punxsutawney Phil is getting on board with the movement.
Peace & Light to You
Jae
