Any time Jenni Przekwas sees a pink flowering tree, her heartbeat slows, her facial muscles ease, and she can’t help but smile. It’s almost a Pavlovian response, triggered by the memory of a cherry tree in her Littleton, Colorado, childhood backyard.
“One of my favorite feelings was sitting under the tree and letting the petals fall on me,” says Jenni, who now lives in Denver. “I remember looking up and letting it rain pink petals on me and seeing the blue sky. It was such a serene time.”
Indeed, when stress and tension soar today, Jenni buckles her 5-year-old daughter into her car and drives to her favorite tree-lined street. There, she and her daughter walk among the falling petals and leaves.
Health Benefits
Finding a place that calms you is crucial to ensuring heart health. Hundreds of studies have shown that “just being quiet” evokes the ever-important relaxation response, which can lower blood pressure by 7–10 points, says Kathleen Hall, chief executive officer of the Atlanta-based Stress Institute. “It lowers your heart rate, and right away you get an immune system boost,” Hall says. “Considering the chaos in which we all live, it’s very important to have short intervals of relaxation. Research shows that even if you stop for three to five minutes, you change the lobes of the brain and you relax, producing serotonin and endorphins.” Serotonin tends to induce feelings of calm. Endorphins, often called the feel-good brain chemicals, reduce the perception of pain and produce feelings of euphoria.
It’s not hard to find a place for silence. Hall, author of A Life in Balance: Nourishing the Four Roots of True Happiness (AMACOM Books, 2006), makes sure each room in her Georgia farmhouse has a touchstone or altar. In the kitchen, she keeps her grandmother’s ring and her daughter’s Wonder Woman doll on the sill above the sink. When she’s washing dishes or chopping onions, these items evoke pleasant memories and remind her of what’s important in her life.
Hall also has reminders in her bedroom and bathroom, including a crystal bowl full of aromatherapy soaps and her grandmother’s crocheted lace. Hall wears a beaded bracelet on her wrist that she rubs between her fingers to calm herself during stressful times, such as turbulent flights or clogged commutes in rush-hour traffic.
Stress is probably the biggest risk factor for heart disease, along with the emotions that come from it—anxiety, hostility, and depression—according to Sandra Finkel, manager of stress management services at the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center.
“Anything that I teach in the realm of stress management has a component of creating space,” Finkel says. “The idea of creating a sanctuary is a wonderful way to bring back that sense of centeredness and balance that may be lost in the doing-doing-doing.”
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