"but maybe feeling good and relaxed is important too??"
Absolutely... which is why I don't push him to do healthy things in way that stresses him out or gets a negative reaction.
However, my own test results that I got at the end of June were extremely interesting relative to the issue of stress. Stress adversely affects the cardiovascular system, as everyone knows, but my annual carotid artery sonogram results and inflammation markers were no worse than than my last test. This is despite the fact that I have had the most stressful year of my life with my husband's congestive heart failure and near death, his diagnosis at a time when we didn't have health insurance, his three surgeries and winding up in the ER twice and need to be hospitalized for a week after one of them, his chemo and stress over everything, my baby brother who was like a son to me being killed in a hit and run (just a couple weeks before DH's liver surgery), and then a major career-on-the-line meeting a week or so after said surgery.
My inflammation biomarkers were the lowest they have ever been and my IMT measurements were unchanged, amazingly. I have been drinking more than usual, not working out as much as usual, but my diet has been pretty much the same since the year before. The one big difference this year has been consistent use of Omega 3s and Vitamin D and the addition of pine bark and decaffeinated green tea extracts to my supplements. Now, if I cut back on alcohol and exercise more and keep everything else the same, I can reverse the plaque in my artery as I had done about seven years ago.