Our hearts are amazing. As one of the most essential organs, our hearts are engines for life. Pumping oxygenated blood and feeding vital nutrients into our bodies – the work of the heart is massive and mighty. It is with beating hearts that we can move and laugh; we can work, learn, and play.

Another amazing function of our heart is as our emotional core – the space from which we live our lives. Our hearts guide us through choices, hold our sense of self, and ground us in who we are, what we believe, and what we value. In our hearts, we hold truth and joy, heartache and growth, imagination and wisdom. It is from beating hearts that we can connect and bond; we can feel, appreciate, and love.

Wellness and wellbeing are intricately connected with these extensive capacities of the heart. Intertwined with our heart’s physical and emotionally functioning, in caring for our hearts we have a powerful influence on how well we will be. Through movement and nourishing foods, for instance, we can keep our hearts fit. By sleeping well and managing stress, we can keep our hearts balanced. In attending to our emotional core, we can also ensure that our hearts can thrive to their full capacity.

We can think of it as heart-care. We are cultivating the heart – nurturing and feeding the heart so wellness can grow and thrive.

An effective heart-care practice for cultivating our heart capacity is the practice of self-love. The practice of self-love includes knowing, valuing, and accepting ourselves for who we are. With self-love, we know how to treat ourselves with kindness and respect; we know how to set boundaries and create healthy relationships while also pursuing our own interests and goals. Without these practices, we can be prone to self-criticism, people-pleasing, and perfectionism; however, with a foundation of self-love, we can develop confidence in who we are and how we show up in the world, cultivating our heart so wellness can grow from within.

Now, self-love as a practice does not have to be complicated or elaborate – it doesn’t have to be cheesy, and it’s certainly not self-indulgent. Learning to care for ourselves is an essential practice and tiny amounts of self-love can achieve a lot. A positive thought, a moment of self-compassion, or an outreach for support all express self-love. We can also try:

• Saying one positive thing about who we are,

• Forgiving ourselves for a mistake,

• Standing up for a passion or belief, or

• Recognizing progress towards an objective or goal.

When we practice meeting our own needs, valuing our feelings, and holding ourselves accountable for our commitments, we are growing wellness. Each self-love practice also provides us a way to cultivate ourselves into the people we wish to be, creating the space to live the wellness we envision.

Regardless of where you start and where you are going, every wellness journey calls for cultivating the heart. Heart-care practices that strengthen body, spirit, and mind allow us to care for our heart from all perspectives of its capacity, growing the wellness and wellbeing we desire.

What is one way you will cultivate your heart today?