Want to Reduce Stress? Place Your Hands on Your Heart

I heard someone say the other day (and honestly, I don't recalled if it was Ted Lasso or a Peloton instructor), that placing our hands on our heart is scientifically proven to reduce Cortisol levels as much as receiving a hug from someone else, and therefore, stress.

And so - of course, being a curious person I looked it up to see if there was, in fact, research on this. There is! (see link below)

This also correlates nicely with my more recent interest in tapping into the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest; slowing down the pace of our brains and activity) to actually IMPROVE our results.

It seems there is so much stress in the world these days - everyone is going, going, going - to what end?

What could be available to you and the people around you if you took it upon yourself to just sit, quietly breathing in and out for a few minutes each day, with your hands over your heart?

Here is the link to read about the research.