How’s your day going? Calm, productive and positive? Or is it more chaotic, demanding and stressful? Emotional stress creates a negative chain reaction within your body. If you’re angry, anxious, tense, or frustrated your body’s natural response is to release stress hormones to prepare your body to deal with stress. They cause your heart to beat more rapidly and your blood vessels to narrow to help push blood to the center of the body and increases your blood pressure. This “fight or flight” response dates back to prehistoric times, when we needed an extra burst of adrenaline to escape predators!

Stress’s link to high blood pressure and inflammation is dangerous because both are known risk factors for heart disease and other health problems. Although studies have not proved that stress alone causes heart disease, it clearly poses an indirect risk and also has a negative effect on your general wellness.

Here are some simple tips to help manage stress and help your heart:
Take a break. When your stress level rises, take a few minutes to escape your surroundings. Spend a few quiet moments alone, read a short story, or listen to your favorite music. Cultivate gratitude. Make a list of what you’re grateful for in your life to focus on the positives.
Exercise. When you are anxious and tense, exercise is a great way to burn off all that excess energy and stress. Go for a walk, a bike ride, or a swim, or go to the gym for your favorite class.
Breathe deeply. Yoga is not only good for your body, but for your mind, too. The meditative, deep breathing done in yoga is calming and relieves stress, especially if you do it regularly.
Get together with friends. Sure, social media is fun, but it’s no substitute for being with people you love! Create some weekly rituals with your friends. If they live far away, try volunteering or joining a local group of people with similar interests to yours. Research suggests that people with frequent social connections enjoy better protection against high blood pressure.