Navigating stress, anxiety & burnout

The intricate relationship between stress and the heart can result in structural transformations within the heart’s nervous system, elevating the risk of arrhythmias and their potentially fatal consequences, writes Dr Jonathan Fisher.

Stress, anxiety, and burnout have become defining challenges of our times, impacting millions across the globe. In my experience as a cardiologist, I have witnessed how these invisible forces quietly erode our mental and emotional health. They also take a toll on our physical well-being. Yet, the solutions often remain hard to find, leaving many searching for a path forward.

Interestingly, the answers might lie closer than we think — within the very organ that sustains our lives: the heart. While traditionally viewed as a mechanical pump, the heart is also an emotional and social centre, deeply connected to how we experience and respond to stress. Understanding its functions — not just biologically but emotionally and socially — can open new doors to managing anxiety and burnout effectively.

The heart as a guide to resilience

Science tells us that the heart and mind are deeply interconnected. This “mind-heart connection” is crucial in processing stress and regulating emotions. For example, the heart communicates with the brain through complex networks of nerves and hormones, influencing our mood, focus, and overall sense of calm.

One of the most empowering tools to practice should be heart-focused breathing. This simple exercise involves slowing your breath to a steady rhythm while imagining each inhale and exhale flowing through your heart. This practice has been shown to activate the parasympathetic nervous system — the body’s natural relaxation response — and reduce levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

Practical techniques like this bring calm in moments of stress and help strengthen our resilience over time. They remind us that we can shift our inner state, no matter how chaotic the world may seem.

Burnout, a crisis of disconnection

At its core, burnout is not just about overwork — it’s about a loss of connection to our purpose, to those we care for, and often to ourselves. The heart offers us essential lessons in reconnection. Just as the physical heart relies on coordinated rhythms to sustain life, our emotional and social lives can only thrive when we create harmony between our inner needs and outward actions.

One of the most powerful antidotes to burnout is cultivating “heart wakers” — emotions and traits that reawaken our capacity for joy, connection, and vitality. These include gratitude, kindness, and compassion, which improve mental health, enhance physical health, and reduce our risk for heart disease. The beauty of these traits is that they can be intentionally developed with practice. For example, starting each day by writing down three things you’re grateful for can shift your mindset and set a positive tone for the hours ahead.

A call to live wholeheartedly

The rising prevalence of stress, anxiety, and burnout reflects a world that often pulls us away from what matters most. Yet, within each of us lies the potential for healing, health, and happiness — rooted in the wisdom of the heart.

By embracing practices that align with the heart’s rhythms and reconnecting with its timeless traits, we can navigate the challenges of modern life with greater ease and purpose.

As we collectively face the stresses of a fast-paced world, it’s essential to pause and listen to the quiet wisdom of your heart as it might just hold the key to your collective search for balance, meaning, and renewal.

(Dr Jonathan Fisher is a Harvard-trained cardiologist, mindfulness teacher, and organisational well-being leader. He is the author of “Just One Heart” published by Harper Collins.)

Unveiling the heart’s response to stress & emotional states

Our hearts are remarkable organs. Every second, the heart’s ventricles, the lower chambers, contract forcefully, propelling approximately two ounces of life-sustaining blood into circulation. This rhythmic dance of contraction, known as systole, is swiftly followed by relaxation, the diastole, which grants the heart the vital opportunity to replenish itself for the next beat.
In parallel, our emotional hearts have their ebb and flow. When our emotional heart contracts, its effects can manifest physically. We might sense tightness or discomfort in the chest or throat while muscles in our brow, jaw, and shoulders tense in response to the body’s innate preparation for potential threats or challenges.

My journey into understanding the heart’s response to stress and emotional states was born out of decades of suffering from the profound impact of stress on every aspect of my life. Back then, I had never been taught about stress or equipped with strategies to navigate its tumultuous waters. I often reflect on how different my life might have been if I had possessed the knowledge I have today. It could have made my journey more enjoyable and allowed me to assist my stressed-out patients and colleagues much earlier in my career.

In extreme or prolonged circumstances, distressing emotions can harm our physical hearts. Emotional distress, aptly termed “dis-ease,” has been closely linked to nearly every category of physical heart ailment, including high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, irregular heart rhythms, congestive heart failure, and even sudden cardiac death. Among these afflictions, stress, in particular, wields the power to induce immediate and enduring alterations in the heart’s physical structure and functions. It can influence cardiac rhythms, trigger coronary vasoconstriction, and lead to ischemia — a condition marked by oxygen deprivation in the affected part of the heart (Buckley and Shivkumar 2016; Mehta et al. 2022).

Vasoconstriction refers to the constriction and narrowing of blood vessels while ischemia denotes the resulting insufficiency of oxygen in the heart tissue. This intricate relationship between stress and the heart can result in structural transformations within the heart’s nervous system, elevating the risk of arrhythmias and their potentially fatal consequences. Conversely, our emotional hearts tend to relax and expand when we feel secure, content, and supported. The vagus nerve facilitates calm and well-being, subtly interlinking our emotional states with a soothing physiological response. We may become aware of an openness and warmth in our chest accompanied by an overall sense of ease that permeates our entire being. This harmonious interplay between our emotional states and physical well-being underscores the profound connection between our emotional and physical hearts.

By attentively listening to these signals from our bodies, we gain invaluable insights into the condition of our hearts, encompassing both the physical and emotional aspects. Understanding how our hearts react to stress and various emotional states is not just important; it’s imperative for managing our overall well-being and navigating life’s never-ending challenges.

(Excerpted with permission from Just One Heart, published by Harper Collins.)