Caring for the Hearts We Love--Including Our Own

February often shines a spotlight on heart health, especially through campaigns like American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women, reminding women to pay closer attention to a disease that often presents differently in us. But heart disease doesn’t just impact women. It remains the number one killer of both women and men.

In my opinion, that truth makes heart health less of an individual responsibility and more of a shared journey.

Many of us women naturally step into caregiving roles. We remind others to schedule doctor’s appointments. We take other’s to their apointments.  We notice when someone we love looks overly stressed or exhausted. But what if heart health became something couples, partners, friends, and families approached together?

Because the truth is, many of the habits that protect our hearts are easier—and more meaningful—when shared.

Heart health isn’t built in one dramatic moment. It forms quietly in daily choices. Walking after dinner instead of sitting immediately in front of the television. Preparing meals at home more often and even as a shared task. Choosing rest over constant productivity. Learning how stress affects blood pressure, sleep, and inflammation. These aren’t grand gestures. They are steady ones.

Men, in particular, sometimes delay addressing their health until symptoms become impossible to ignore. Women often notice changes earlier but may focus so much on supporting others that they overlook their own warning signs. Both patterns deserve compassion, not criticism.

What if this month became an opportunity for conversation instead of correction?

Not, “You need to eat better.”But, “How can we support each other in feeling stronger and healthier?”

That might look like scheduling annual checkups together. Trying a new heart-supportive recipe. Going for short walks that turn into meaningful conversations. Even learning family health histories as a team can strengthen awareness and prevention.

Heart health is deeply connected to emotional wellness as well. Chronic stress, loneliness, and unspoken burdens can weigh heavily on the heart—sometimes as much as diet or exercise. Supporting each other emotionally becomes just as important as supporting each other physically.

Protecting your heart isn’t only about avoiding disease. It’s about preserving energy, presence, and longevity so you can fully show up for the people and experiences that matter most.

Sometimes the most powerful wellness changes don’t happen alone. They happen side by side.

Your heart deserves care.And so do the hearts connected to yours.

If this reflection resonates with you, consider sharing it with someone whose heart is connected to yours.

Heart health doesn’t have to be a solo journey. Sometimes the most lasting wellness changes happen when we support each other—through small daily choices, honest conversations, and shared commitment to living well.

You don’t have to do it perfectly.

You just have to begin—together.

--Teresa