There’s something incredibly empowering about realising that our health isn’t fixed, that our story isn’t finished, and that even when life or genetics or circumstance has dealt us what looks like a difficult hand, we still have the ability to influence the outcome.
As a woman who’s spent years walking alongside others on their journey toward better heart health and greater vitality, I can tell you this with complete honesty – we have far more power to shape our well-being than we’re often led to believe.
It’s not about doing everything perfectly. It’s about listening to your body with compassion, learning what helps it thrive, and creating an environment where it can do what it was designed to do — heal, adapt, and flourish.
And when we talk about health, especially heart health, three pathways make the most profound difference. They’re not fads or quick fixes, and they might look simple on the surface, however when you live them with intention, they change everything.
Let’s walk through them together.
1. The rhythm of your heart begins with the rhythm of your days
One of the most powerful — and most overlooked — influences on our health is rhythm.
We’re rhythmic beings.
Our hearts beat in rhythm.
Our breath moves in rhythm.
Even our cells follow patterns of repair, rest, and renewal.
Yet modern life pulls us out of sync so easily.
Late nights, rushed mornings, endless screens, skipped meals, fragmented attention — it all leaves our bodies guessing when it’s time to rest, digest, or repair.
When we live out of rhythm, our nervous system stays alert, our stress hormones rise, and our hearts work harder than they need to.
Bringing rhythm back doesn’t mean living on a rigid schedule; it means creating gentle, predictable patterns that tell your body: you’re safe now, you can settle, you can trust this day.
Start small.
Wake up and go to bed at roughly the same times.
Eat meals that are slow enough to actually taste.
Step outside every morning for just a few minutes of natural light — even if it’s cloudy. That light tells your body to wake up naturally, and it resets your internal clock, which affects everything from hormone balance to heart rate variability.
Rhythm also means learning to flow through your day instead of fighting it. Notice how your energy changes. You might feel sharp and creative midmorning, however softer and more reflective in the afternoon. Instead of pushing through fatigue, honour those shifts.
When your daily rhythm starts aligning with your body’s natural rhythm, your heart rate lowers, your blood pressure steadies, and your energy starts feeling smoother instead of spiky.
It’s a quiet transformation — one that feels like exhaling after years of holding your breath.
2. How we think and feel is how our heart learns to beat
The next major way we influence our health — especially our heart health — is through our emotional landscape.
Your heart doesn’t just respond to physical inputs like food or exercise. It listens to every conversation you have, every thought that loops through your mind, every story you tell yourself about who you are and what you deserve.
There’s a direct communication line between your brain and your heart through the vagus nerve. When you feel anxious, lonely, or unsupported, your heart actually receives that signal — it starts to beat faster, less evenly, as if bracing itself. When you feel calm, safe, loved, and connected, your heart relaxes. It expands its rhythm, literally.
So yes, your emotional world is your cardiovascular world.
This is why practices like gratitude, compassion, and gentle self-reflection aren’t just nice ideas — they’re medicine 1
If you’ve ever felt your chest tighten after an argument or soften during a long hug, you’ve felt the truth of that connection.
One of the simplest and most effective practices I’ve found is heart-focused breathing, which has been beneficial both personally and for many of my clients. It’s not complicated — you simply place a hand over your heart, close your eyes, and imagine that your breath is flowing in and out through that space. Slow down your exhale just a little longer than your inhale.
Doing this for a minute or two when we wake up, or when we feel overwhelmed, can be big. What happens is extraordinary – your heart rate synchronises with your breath, your nervous system calms, and your body starts releasing biochemistry that supports healing and clarity.
And over time, this practice does something even more beautiful — it teaches your heart to stay open even when life gets challenging. It gives you the resilience to respond instead of react, to soften instead of harden, to love instead of fear.
That’s what emotional heart health really is. Not the absence of stress, however, the ability to return to calm.
When we discuss influencing our health, it makes sense to include our emotional lives in the conversation. Because every thought, every feeling, every act of forgiveness or self-kindness — it all becomes rhythm. It all becomes heartbeat.
3. Nourishment as devotion, not discipline
Food is such a personal and emotional subject, isn’t it? We’ve been told so many rules about what to eat, when to eat, how to eat, that we’ve almost forgotten the simple truth – food is a relationship.
It’s how we communicate with our bodies every single day.
And yet, so many of us can end up feeling guilty or confused about what to eat. Many of us have tried every plan under the sun and still feel disconnected from our own sense of nourishment.
So let’s reclaim this. Let’s make nourishment about caring instead of discipline.
That means tuning in, asking, ‘What would make my body feel supported right now?’ Sometimes that’s a bowl of soup and stillness. Sometimes it’s a crisp salad that wakes you up. Sometimes it’s the joy of sharing a meal with someone you love.
When we approach nourishment this way, we stop chasing ‘perfect’ and start creating balance — balance that naturally supports our heart, our hormones, and our energy.
The key is variety, colour, and calm.
The more colourful your plate, the wider range of plant nutrients you give your heart to work with. Think dark greens, vibrant oranges, reds, purples. Nature has painted her pharmacy beautifully — and when we eat from that palette, our bodies respond.
Equally important is how we eat.
Rushed eating — in the car, at the desk, on the go — sends a stress signal that actually interferes with digestion and nutrient absorption. Slow, mindful eating tells your body: it’s ok to receive.
And receiving, at its core, is what health is about.
Letting in nourishment, letting in rest, letting in love.
Next let’s look at one more layer of nourishment — the kind that goes beyond food.
True nourishment comes from meaning and connection.
From doing things that light you up, from being creative, from time in nature, from laughter, from silence.
These things regulate your heart every bit as much as what’s on your plate. They reduce inflammation, improve blood flow, and remind your body that life isn’t something to survive — it’s something to savour.
The quiet interplay between body, mind, and spirit
What I love about these three pathways — rhythm, emotion, and nourishment — is that they aren’t separate. They intertwine, like threads in a tapestry.
Your emotional state affects your appetite and sleep rhythm. Your sleep affects your mood. Your mood affects your digestion and energy. It’s all connected, constantly communicating, constantly adjusting.
This means that when you nurture one, the others begin to heal too.
Create rhythm, and your stress lowers. Lower stress, and your digestion improves. Improve digestion, and your heart gets the nutrients it needs to beat with ease.
Our bodies are symphonies, not solo instruments. And when we care for them in harmony, the music of life starts to sound sweeter again.
What happens when you start living this way
I’ve watched it happen countless times — including those who thought their best energy years were behind them starting to glow again.
For those of us following this path – our skin softens. Our eyes brighten. We feel lighter, calmer, clearer.
We can begin to trust our bodies again.
And that trust is transformative.
Because health isn’t just a collection of numbers on a lab report. It’s the quiet confidence that you can wake up and meet the day with energy, that you can move through challenges with steadiness, that you can feel joy and love and purpose pulsing through your veins.
And even more than that, it’s the freedom of knowing you are the co-creator of your vitality.
You’re not waiting for someone to fix you. You’re partnering with your body — learning its language, responding to its needs, creating the environment it thrives in.
That’s influence. That’s empowerment.
A gentle reminder as you move forward
If there’s one truth I wish I could write on every heart, it’s this – healing happens in safety, not stress.
You don’t have to push harder. You don’t have to do everything at once. You don’t have to earn rest, or love, or health.
Start where you are.
One rhythm at a time.
One breath at a time.
One nourishing choice at a time.
Because all those small, gentle shifts add up. They create new chemistry, new neural pathways, new patterns of peace inside your body.
And your heart — that beautiful, tireless organ that’s been beating for you since before you were born — feels every single one.
It’s not asking for perfection. It’s asking for partnership.
So let’s stop seeing health as a battle, and start seeing it as a relationship. One built on trust, care, and gentle consistency.
You are not powerless in your health story. You are the author, the artist, the gardener of your own wellbeing.
And your heart?
It’s listening, ready to follow your lead.
See you on this week’s #AlivewithFi 🙂
Fi Jamieson-Folland D.O., I.N.H.C., is The LifeStyle Aligner. She’s an experienced practitioner since 1992 in Europe, Asia and New Zealand as a qualified Osteopath, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, speaker, educator, writer, certified raw vegan gluten-free chef, and Health Brand Ambassador.
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1 Interesting research showing the positive effect of self-affirmation on anxiety and perceived discomfort in patients who have undergone open-heart surgery
https -//www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0897189723000216