The Art of the Heart: A Message From Israel for Valentine’s Day

In the weeks before Valentine’s Day, hearts appear on everything: cards, shop windows, menus, and messages. It’s sweet and familiar. We use the heart as a symbol for love because it’s the body’s center for the emotion of love.

The heart is not just a Valentine’s Day symbol, however. It’s an organ that works without stopping, and it responds, quietly and powerfully, to the way we live — how and what we eat, how much stress we carry, how well we sleep, how often we move, and whether we feel connected or alone.

I came to Israel from Los Angeles in 1983 with a mission that has guided me ever since: “Healing Ourselves; Healing the Planet.” A few years later I founded what became Reidman College, beginning with a small school for holistic massage. Back then, my belief was simple: When you touch someone, you touch their soul. Done with care and respect, touch can ease pain in the body, and it can also soften something deeper: the constant bracing that so many people carry without even noticing.

What I’ve seen through the clinical training our students provide across Israel is that people don’t arrive with only a physical complaint. They arrive with a full life behind the symptom. The body is not separate from the person. The heart is not separate from the story.

That is why Valentine’s Day can be more than a commercial holiday. It can be a useful mirror. Not because everyone needs romance, but because everyone needs and wants love in the wider sense: connection, belonging, steadiness, and the feeling that I am not carrying everything alone.

Heartbreak is not just the aching heart in a Country Western song. The emotions of prolonged stress, grief, anxiety, and loneliness often show up physically in the heart. A tight chest. Shallow breathing. Poor sleep. A nervous system that never truly calms down.

When stress becomes chronic, the body behaves as if danger is always close. That affects how we breathe, how we digest, how we rest, and how we make decisions. We reach for quick comfort because the system is asking for relief. Over time, those patterns shape the habits that can protect or damage heart health: movement, sleep, food choices, emotional regulation, and the ability to recover after difficult days.

In integrative medicine, we know that changing only one habit doesn’t solve everything. We also don’t separate a person into compartments — heart here, mind there, life somewhere else. At Reidman, we teach that real care is both responsible and grounded, and that integrative approaches work best; that is, conventional medicine alongside Natural Medicine, and not instead of it. If someone has symptoms that worry them, whether that be chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, unusual fatigue, or unusual palpitations, they should get checked. Only with a clear diagnosis can one then begin to take the right path toward better health.

For many people, the most meaningful change for better heart health begins with a question: What does my heart need from my daily life right now?

Usually, the answer is not dramatic. It starts with the nervous system. Many adults live in a state of constant tension — shoulders lifted, jaw tight, breath held, like we are bracing for impact. You don’t have to change your whole life to change that message. Even a small daily practice of slowing the breath, especially lengthening the exhale, can help the body come down from alert mode. I’ve seen again and again in our teaching clinics: When the breath settles, the person settles. And when the person settles, the heart doesn’t have to work as hard just to keep them emotionally afloat.

Then there is movement. A short walk most days is one of the simplest ways to support circulation, mood, and sleep. It also gives stress a place to go. So many people are trying to “think” their way out of tension. But the body often needs a physical release. A 10-minute walk after a meal, a few minutes in fresh air, small things, repeated, can shift the baseline.

Sleep matters more than people like to admit. When sleep is poor, everything becomes louder: worry, cravings, irritability, sensitivity. A tired nervous system is fragile. A rested one is resilient. The heart is part of that story. If Valentine’s Day is a time for gifts, then let this message be a gift to you: Protect your evenings from constant stimulation. Create a softer landing. Less screen. Lower light. A warm shower. A few quiet minutes before bed because your body repairs itself at night and your heart benefits when you respect that repair.

And then there is the most overlooked “heart health” factor of all: connection.

Love is not only romance. Love is the person who checks in. The friend who answers. The community that makes space for you and perhaps having a pet. It is known that people with pets to care for and receive love from live longer and happier than most others. Dogs, in particular, are renowned for giving unconditional love.

Valentine’s Day can unintentionally reflect to single people, widows and widowers, the divorced, the grieving, and the lonely that they are “outside” the story. But the heart doesn’t only respond to couple-hood. The heart responds to belonging. To the feeling that you matter to someone, and someone matters to you.

If you want a simple Valentine’s practice that is actually meaningful, it’s this: Reach out in a real way. Not a reaction emoji. Not a forwarded video. A sentence that carries warmth. “How are you, really?” “I’m thinking of you.” “Do you want to take a walk together?” It sounds small, but small acts of connection are often what keep people steady.

Judaism understands something essential here: We are not meant to live as isolated individuals. We are built for community. Even the rhythm of Shabbat — pausing, disconnecting from constant doing, returning to family and to presence, is, in its own way, a heart practice. It reminds the body that life is not only pressure. There is also rest. There is also meaning. There is also relationship.

And there is touch, appropriate, respectful touch, which is increasingly missing in modern life. We live in a world that is both touch-starved and touch-confused. But the body still needs safe contact: a hug that is asked for, not taken; a hand held; a massage given with dignity. This is one reason I began in massage all those years ago. Because when touch is done properly, it can communicate something words often can’t: “You are safe, you are seen, you are not alone, and I am here with you.”

At Reidman, we speak a lot about dignity. And that includes the way we treat ourselves. Many people live at emergency speed. The heart doesn’t respond well to constant stress. It responds to steadiness. To daily care. To a life that is livable.

So yes, enjoy Valentine’s Day. Enjoy the sweetness. Send the heart emoji, send the flowers, book that romantic dinner.

But if you want the holiday to mean something deeper, let it be a reminder that your real heart is listening to your life. This month, give it more than a symbol. Give it calmer breathing, steadier sleep, gentle movement, and real connection — because love is not only what we celebrate. Love is also what we practice. Love is the most powerful healer of all. Loving ourselves; and loving others. Perhaps the Beatles were right: “All we need is love, love. Love is all we need.”

Sally Reidman, who immigrated to Israel in 1983 from Los Angeles, is the founder of Reidman College, Israel’s largest institute for complementary and integrative medicine.