Pumping Out Ideas for a Healthy Heart
The mood of the luncheon was lively, upbeat.
The message, sobering: Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of American women.
To educate women about that unsettling statistic, the Orange County chapter of the American Heart Assn. staged the premiere of its Women With Heart benefit last week at the Irvine Marriott hotel.
Across the nation, the American Heart Assn. has a priority to teach women that “more than 500,000 women die each year from heart attacks and strokes,” said Sally Fenton, executive director of the local chapter.
Among luncheon guests: Judie Argyros of Newport Beach--who was mistress of ceremonies--and author Arianna Huffington of Los Angeles, keynote speaker.
“I got involved with this event because I believe in the work of the association,” Argyros said. “My father had a heart attack, my mother-in-law has a pacemaker, and my own mother has high blood pressure that is monitored constantly,” she said. “The heart is the center of everything--physically and emotionally.”
After enjoying a heart-healthful lunch--leafy salad, moderate portions of beef and salmon, and fresh berries--about 400 women settled back to hear Huffington speak about ways to reduce stress.
Experts in cardiology believe stress can be as big a risk factor for heart disease as high blood pressure.
Courage is a sure-fire stress reliever, Huffington told the crowd, especially in the face of imagined disasters.
“Some of us go through life being afraid of things that may never happen,” she said. “As Mark Twain put it, ‘There were many terrible things in my life--but most of them never happened.’ ”
Mulling worst-case scenarios over in your mind is not only stressful--it’s a waste of time. “I believe any disaster you can foresee isn’t really a disaster,” she said. “As one philosopher put it, ‘Courage is the knowledge of what’s not to be feared.’
“When bad things do happen, [a strength] that we didn’t know we had comes to the forefront.”
More stress-relievers from Huffington:
* Discard the pursuit of perfection. “The realization that perfection will never come--that things won’t always go our way--is a sign of maturity. How we go through life is entirely a function of whether we choose to focus on what’s working in it or what’s not.”
* “Giving is a great way to relieve stress. We grow physically by what we take and spiritually by what we give. Giving relieves us from our own preoccupations.”
* “One image I use for dealing with stress is to picture myself on a life train going home to God. I think of everything that’s happening in my life as scenery--some beautiful, some ugly. If you think of your life as a train journey, you don’t get so obsessed about its difficulties.”
* “Forgive others and forgive yourselves. Hatred, anger and bitterness are poison to your system.”
“It all comes down to developing a sense of gratitude” for the life we have, Huffington said. “As the French writer Colette said, ‘I had such a wonderful life. I wish I’d realized it sooner.’ ”
*
Puerto Vallarta North: Music lovers Olga and Fernando Niebla of Orange Park Acres welcomed friends into their 7,000-square-foot home Friday to celebrate the upcoming appearance of Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.
The April 9 concert is being staged by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.
About 60 members of Orange County’s Latino community sampled appetizers and sipped wine on the sweeping patio of the Nieblas’ Spanish/Mediterranean-style home.
The ambience created by the patio’s portico and fireplace reminds Fernando Niebla of the architecture of Puerto Vallarta, one of his favorite vacation spots. “I call this Puerto Vallarta North,” he quipped.
Dean Corey, executive director of the society, noted that the Sinfonica concert will mark “the first time in the philharmonic’s 45-year history that we have presented a Mexican orchestra in our Main Orchestra Series--the same series where we present the New York Philharmonic and the Pittsburg Symphony,” he said. “They are playing an all-Mexican program. . . . Some of the works have never been performed by a Mexican orchestra in the United States.”
Corey stressed the importance of the community’s support for the Sinfonica appearance. “This is an opportunity for Orange County’s Hispanic community to demonstrate that they want more events like this in our concert series in the future,” he said.
Information: (949) 553-2422.
*
Guilds’ event: Under clear blue skies, about 500 members of the Guilds of the Orange County Performing Arts Center sipped libations on the patio of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point before filing into the ballroom Thursday to enjoy lunch and watch a fashion parade by Nordstrom.
Each year, the popular fashion show sells out, said Guilds chairwoman Micky Shannon West. “We came to the Ritz-Carlton this year because we needed an even bigger ballroom than we had last year at the Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach,” she said.
Center president Jerry Mandel is grateful for the fund-raising enthusiasm shown by the guilds, whose members have raised $7.5 million for the center.
Mandel’s dream for the 2,000-member group: “I’d like to see their numbers double in the next five years. When the center expands, we’re going to have 75% more seats with four theaters operating at once--Segerstrom Hall, Founders Hall, the new concert hall and its other 500-seat music hall,” he said.
Information about the guilds: (714) 556-2122.