Just One Heart – by Dr. Jonathan Fisher

First, what this is not: a book to say eat fiber, go easy on the salt, get some exercise, and so forth.

What this rather is: a book about the connection between the heart and mind; often written poetically, the simple biological reality is that our emotional state does have a genuine impact on our heart health, and as such, any effort to look after our heart (healthwise) would be incomplete without an effort to look after our heart (emotionally).

Dr. Fisher talks about the impact of stress and uncertainty, as well as peace and security, on heart health—and then, having sorted emotional states into “heart breakers” and “heart wakers”, he goes about laying out a plan for what is, emotionally and thus also physiologically, good for our heart.

Chapter by chapter, he walks us through the 7 principles to live by:

1. Steadiness: how to steady your heart amid chaos
2. Wisdom: how to develop a wise heart in uncertain times
3. Openness: how to safely open your heart in a threatening world
4. Wholeness: how to show up with your whole heart without going to pieces
5. Courage: how to lead with a courageous heart when fear surrounds you
6. Lightness: how to live with a light heart in a heavy world
7. Warmth: how to love with a warm heart when life feels cold

The style is anything but clinical; it’s well-written, certainly, and definitely informed in part by his medical understanding of the heart, but it’s entirely the raw human element that shines throughout, and that makes the ideas a lot more tangible.

Bottom line: if you’d like your heart to be healthy (cardiac health) and your heart to be healthy (emotional health), this book is a very worthwhile read.

Click here to check out Just One Heart, and take care of yours!