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February is American Heart Month, a time traditionally marked by red dresses, awareness campaigns, and reminders to “know your numbers.” But for women, heart health awareness is more than symbolic; it reflects a condition that remains the leading cause of death nationwide.

Heart disease accounts for nearly one in five deaths among women in the United States, exceeding the combined total of all cancers. Despite this, many women continue to underestimate their personal risk, often viewing cardiovascular disease as primarily a men’s health concern.

One contributing factor is that heart disease can present differently in women. While chest pain is common, women are more likely than men to experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea, jaw or back pain, dizziness, and unexplained fatigue. These symptoms may be less recognizable and are sometimes attributed to stress, aging, or hormonal changes rather than cardiac causes.

Risk Factors Across the Lifespan

Cardiovascular risk for women increases with age, particularly after menopause, but underlying contributors often emerge earlier. High blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and insulin resistance can develop without noticeable symptoms for years.

Pregnancy-related conditions, including gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and preterm birth, are now recognized as important indicators of future cardiovascular risk. Women with these histories may face higher rates of heart disease later in life, even if they were otherwise healthy during pregnancy.

Lifestyle and environmental factors also play a role. Chronic stress, sleep disruption, and limited physical activity common across many stages of life are associated with increased cardiovascular risk.

Key Health Screenings

Routine medical care often includes basic cardiovascular measurements, but Heart Month brings attention to the screenings most closely associated with heart health. These include blood pressure monitoring, lipid panels measuring cholesterol and triglycerides, and blood glucose or A1C testing to assess diabetes risk.

Additional measures, such as waist circumference and a review of family and reproductive history, can provide further context for assessing long-term cardiovascular risk. Together, these screenings contribute to a more comprehensive picture than any single metric alone.

Everyday Heart-Healthy Patterns

Research consistently links certain dietary and lifestyle patterns with improved cardiovascular outcomes. Diets emphasizing whole foods, fiber, and unsaturated fats are associated with healthier cholesterol levels and reduced inflammation.

Regular physical activity supports heart function, circulation, and blood pressure regulation. Sleep duration and quality are also increasingly recognized as factors influencing cardiovascular health, with inadequate sleep linked to higher rates of hypertension and heart disease.

An Evolving Area of Women’s Health

Cardiovascular disease in women remains an active area of clinical research, with growing evidence highlighting differences in symptoms, risk factors, and disease progression compared with men. Reproductive history, metabolic health, and age-related changes are increasingly recognized as relevant factors in cardiovascular assessment.

Heart Month serves as a standardized point for reviewing current data and established screening practices related to women’s heart health.

Woman to Woman Magazine team contributed to this article.

Black History Month is a time to celebrate, learn, and honor the stories that have shaped culture, progress, and possibility. For women, it’s an invitation to explore voices that reflect strength, creativity, leadership, motherhood, joy, resistance, and brilliance   stories that continue to influence how we live, work, and show up today.

Below is a curated, approachable way to engage with Black History Month through listening, reading, and learning no prerequisites required.

Start With the Why

• Black history is American history, women’s history, and cultural history

• Many contributions by Black women have been historically overlooked or minimized.

• Learning is a form of respect and listening is a form of action

Podcasts Worth Your Ears 

Perfect for school drop-offs, workouts, or folding laundry.

• “Therapy for Black Girls” Mental health, wellness, and lived experience through a compassionate, empowering lens.

• “The Nod” Culture, humor, history, and the things you didn’t learn in school.

• “Balanced Black Girl” Wellness, identity, and redefining health outside of hustle culture.

• “Code Switch” Honest conversations about race, culture, and how it shows up in everyday life.

Books to Add to Your Nightstand 

From essays to memoirs to cultural critique.

• “Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde - Essays that feel as relevant today as ever.

• “Hood Feminism” by Mikki Kendall  - A powerful look at feminism through a real-world, inclusive lens.

• “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison - A classic that explores beauty, identity, and harm.

• “Becoming” by Michelle Obama - Leadership, motherhood, ambition, and grace.

• “Bad Feminist” by Roxane Gay - Smart, funny, and deeply human.

Black Women to Learn More About 

Past and present, because history didn’t stop.

• Shirley Chisholm - The first Black woman elected to Congress; bold, outspoken, and unapologetic.

• Mae Jemison - Engineer, physician, and the first Black woman astronaut.

• Bell Hooks - Author and cultural critic whose work reshaped conversations on feminism and love.

• Tarana Burke - Founder of the #MeToo movement, rooted in healing and accountability.

• Amanda Gorman - Poet, activist, and voice of a new generation.

Ways to Celebrate Beyond Reading

• Support Black-owned businesses, authors, and creators.

• Have age-appropriate conversations with your kids

• Share what you’re learning (without centering yourself)

• Revisit history you thought you already knew.

Black History Month doesn’t require perfection. It requires curiosity, humility, and a willingness to listen. 

Woman to Woman Magazine team contributed to this article.

What drives you? Why do you do what you do? I believe that everyone deserves answers. I’ve always been interested in true crime and mysteries. I’ve turned what I used to consider my ADHD flaws (hyper- focus, more like problem solving) into my career.

What’s a decision you’ve made recently (or not) that reflects who you are now, not who you used to be? I made the decision to stop my fear of failure and just turn my life around. I started focusing on myself and my physical and mental health. I stopped stressing the small stuff.

How has your definition of success or fulfillment shifted over time? I feel the most fulfilled now when everyone is happy. If that is something I can contribute to, someone’s happiness, then I have succeeded.

What do people assume about you that isn’t actually true? That I am unapproachable and cold, I’m actually the complete opposite.

What’s something you’ve let go of — a role, expectation, or belief — and why? Maybe not something I’ve let go of, but something gained— “if they wanted to, they would.” Has become a staple expectation in my life. If you genuinely want to do something, make time for someone, you will find a way to. You have to let go of your expectations of certain people or situations. Also, time waits for no one.

What question are you currently sitting with in your life? What’s next for you? I always wonder how things would be different if I had stayed stagnant or where I would be. As for what’s next, I intend to keep working towards my license so I can eventually start my own firm and take on cases and clients that I personally choose!

What helps you feel like yourself when things feel loud or overwhelming? A large glass of wine and reality TV.

What’s one truth you wish women talked about more openly, and how do you live that in your life? I wish women were more transparent about their emotions and spoke up more. Nothing changes without our voice. Women know how to get things done!

There is a quiet, complicated tension many women carry within but rarely voice. It is the guilt of wanting more from a career that once felt like everything they hoped for. The career you have today may have been your dream, your answered prayer, your family’s pride, and your personal proof that hard work pays off. You earned it. You grew inside of it. You became better because of it.

But sometimes, the very blessing you once celebrated slowly becomes too small for the woman you have become.

We rarely talk about what it means to evolve past a chapter we once adored. Growth is not loud or dramatic. More often than not, it is subtle and easy to miss. It shows up in the mornings when you no longer feel challenged. It appears when your mind wanders to work you wish you were doing instead. It slips into conversations where you realize you have stopped advocating for new opportunities because, deep down, there is nothing left to stretch into.

You have learned. You have grown. You have expanded beyond what this career can offer.

That does not make you ungrateful. And yet, so many women feel guilty even acknowledging this shift.

• “What about my degree? If I leave this career, will everything be a waste?”
  

• “What about the network I’ve built? Would I have to start all over?”
  

• “What about my prestigious job title? Who will I be without it?”

There is guilt for wanting something different. Guilt for wanting more responsibility or less. Guilt for craving alignment, balance, or simply something new. And often, there is guilt for desiring a new season when the current one is still good and stable, especially during a time when so many people are struggling to find work.

But here is the truth. Wanting something different does not erase gratitude for what got you here. Growth does not cancel gratitude. The two can coexist beautifully.

You can appreciate your current role for all it taught you and still recognize that it is no longer the right container for who you are becoming. You can honor this current chapter and still know it is coming to an end. You can give thanks for the opportunity while feeling a quiet pull toward something more aligned.

You are allowed to outgrow a career you once prayed for.

As a new year begins, you will hear advice everywhere. Set resolutions. Choose a word of the year. Define a big, ambitious goal. But reinvention, the kind that truly shifts the trajectory of your life and career, rarely starts there. It begins with honesty. It begins when you acknowledge that you are constantly evolving and that your next chapter is already in motion.

This season, before making any decisions about what is next, allow yourself space to reflect. Let your gratitude and your growth sit at the same table.

Six Questions to Guide Your Career Reinvention 

1. What parts of my career still feel meaningful, and what parts feel expired?
Every role has elements that once mattered but no longer serve you. Pay attention to both the spark and the heaviness. What energizes you points toward your next chapter. What drains you reveals what you have outgrown.

2. Where have I grown beyond the expectations of my current role?
Many women evolve far past their job descriptions without realizing it. You may be operating at a higher level, solving problems outside your scope, or carrying leadership and emotional labor that is not formally recognized. Your growth is data. It is the evidence your career needs to catch up with who you have become.

3. What do I crave more of in my next season?
Do you crave impact, creativity, influence, balance, leadership, recognition, or something else? If you crave creativity, you may be stifled. If you crave balance, you may be out of alignment. If you crave impact or leadership, you may be underutilized. Your desires are not random. They are your source of direction.

4. What guilt am I carrying about wanting something different?
Women often feel loyalty to their past selves, their families, their teams, or their employers. But loyalty to your past should not limit your future. You do not owe a lifetime to a chapter you have already completed. Identify the guilt and release it.

5. What version of myself is trying to emerge, and what needs to shift to let her lead?
This question is the doorway to reinvention. Reinvention is not about abandoning who you were. It is about making space for who you are becoming. Consider what beliefs need updating, what support you need, what relationships to nurture, and what boundaries to strengthen. Let your next level guide your decisions.

6. What has this chapter given me that I will carry forward into my next one?
Take inventory of what this role has sharpened in you, the connections it helped you build, and the strengths you gained along the way. These are assets you can intentionally carry into whatever comes next. You are not starting over; you are continuing from a strong foundation.

Reinvention does not always look like a career change. Sometimes, it is a shift in how you show up. Sometimes it is reintroducing yourself to your network. Sometimes it is renegotiating your role or asking for alignment you have already earned. And yes, sometimes it is stepping into an entirely new chapter.

No matter the form, your next chapter deserves the same faith that got you here. You did not arrive at this moment by accident, and you will not enter your next season by accident either.

Give yourself permission to release the idea that you must stay where you started simply because you once prayed for it. Give yourself permission to evolve. To desire differently. To build a life and career that reflects the woman you are today, not the woman you were five or ten years ago.

You deserve a career that honors who you are now and the growth that brought you here. And that is something worth being grateful for.

As seen in January/February issue of Woman to Woman Magazine. Read it here.

What was your inspiration for this piece/pieces?

This is “Gramps.”  The quintessential grandpa. He was a wood worker, a printer, a fisherman, and an all-around fix-it guy.  I remember him just like this. 

I was lucky enough to work with him for years at our family print shop before he retired. Some of my earliest memories were waking up early and going to the shop with my dad. My grandpa always took the time to entertain me…making notepads for me, getting donuts, and giving me little tasks to do to “help” and make me feel important. As I got older and worked there myself, he did the same for my own kids.

I didn’t originally plan for this drawing to be public. When he passed away at the beginning of this year, I was making it for myself. I’m not great with words, and drawing is usually how I process emotions. I thought if it turned out okay, I’d give it to my grandma. Before I even began, my dad asked if I would create a piece he could print as cards to share with friends and family.

I can only imagine how my grandpa would have reacted to me drawing him…probably a joke, definitely pretending it wasn’t a big deal. You won’t ever catch me fishing, but I carry so many tools (literally and figuratively) that he gave me, from making sure my oil is changed on time, down to the lines in our lawn. I wish everyone could have that experience.