We hear it all the time, “Your health is the most important thing in the world. The only person who is going to take care of you is you. If you’re not healthy yourself, you can’t be available to help others.”

We all know that we can’t pour from an empty cup. It is crucial to take care of our own well being from our physical health to our mental health. Using the five ways below, you will see a change in your body, mind, and smile.

ONE- Clear Your Head

Literally distracting you with something fun and different can actually help your stress. Ideas to help clear your mind can be meditation, exercise, or even going to a museum you’ve never visited. Begin by getting away from your stressors of youngsters, work, or problems in life like missing your kids in college, or overwhelming bills. You can give your brain an inexpensive vacation at your local museum or gallery by researching which ones have free days during the month.

Make the Plan

Ask a friend, neighbor, or family member to babysit, or take the day off from work using a mental day of care. Look up online if your local city’s museums have free days. Here in San Diego, Balboa Park museums are free on certain Tuesday’s of the month. Set up your babysitter, let your boss know you’ll be out, pack a lunch and hit the bricks. Go visit a favorite museum or a new one you’ve never experienced before.

A Good Time Had By All

I did just that. I looked up which museum was free on the first Tuesday of the month and made my plans. I visited the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. Although free days invites many patrons such as school students on field trips and visitors on vacation, accept these facts and understand as you head for parking early.  Remind yourself it’s going to be a blast!

Notice Technology Enhancing Museums

With our technologies these days, museums are incorporating them to showcase their exhibits. By using old ways of showing taxidermy displays, museums have combined the best of each to offer hands on and fun ways of learning. There were small yet powerful magnifying glasses to view very tiny teeth of early dinosaurs and they offered computer type ways of clicking on certain information that fascinated the visitor.

The most remarkable way they used technology was a flat screen showing a fast-mode of scientists unveiling dirt from a paleontologist project. Next to it was a way to peek at these authentic scientists at work uncovering their find right in front of us. Hopefully, this would encourage any school student to learn about the history of the world and want to get involved in this area. It is a wonderful way to connect with things that are new and start your body take in endorphins and lower your stress.

TWO-Gratitude Pours Out

According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, frequently articulating gratitude, the quality of being thankful and readiness to show appreciation, literally changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps the gray matter functioning, and makes us healthier and happier. Some find that writing in a journal on a daily basis can lead to a happy smile. Practicing grateful writing helps those of us stressed out as well as those with mental health issues or concerns. It gets out your toxic emotions whether shared or not.

Happiness Returns

As you stroll through the museum, you may feel gratitude begin to build inside of you. You may sense the positive feeling of putting yourself first for the day. As you put you first, you will begin to think of all the other things in your life that you’re grateful for like your family, your job, your close friends, and even this specific day. You may be grateful for the courage to take this day and to finally put you first.

Start Your Gratitude Journaling

As I sashayed through every floor of the museum, I felt so grateful and in turn I felt relieved. I could literally feel my body fill back up with happiness. It was exactly like that happy feeling of a kid on a field trip, such a happy and free feeling each moment. Now that gratitude is coming up for you on your outing, this would be a perfect time to begin this strategy of writing in a gratitude journal. Not only would it help release the toxic emotions we feel, but it would help those who need something positive in their life to help keep their mental health strong. 

THREE- You Can Breathe

Studies show that deep breathing strengthens your brain and boosts attention span. Through this important link between our breath and brain, having a focused breath can help our bodies function in other ways.

Benefits of Breathing

It is said that by using deep breathing techniques, we can improve focus and our brain health through the release of noradrenaline which is a natural brain chemical messenger. Although it enhances your attention and promotes growth in your brain, this is the classic “too much of anything is not good for you”.

The Science of Breathing for Your Body

Researchers at Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and the Global Brain Health Institute found that when we focus too much on our problems and stress, we actually create too much noradrenaline which in turn wreaks havoc on our focus, heart rate, and blood pressure. Norepinephrine, also known as noradrenaline, is vital for the fight-or-flight response where our body has to prepare to react or retreat from a threat. It can cause problems to the flow of blood to the skeletal muscles, reduces blood flow to the gastrointestinal system, and inhibits voiding of the bladder and gastrolintestinal motility. No wonder people have a problem using the restroom when stressed?

Simplicity of Breathing

As you enjoy your day at the museum, you are breathing properly helping your focus and the rest of your bodily functions to work perfectly. While you walk around, you are breathing which helps you focus on the exhibits and the information represented. When you focus on the dinosaur and shark exhibits, you are giving your brain the necessary amount of noradrenaline so your brain and lungs can talk to each other.

Put simply, it is possible that by focusing on and regulating your breathing, the way you’ve been taught in yoga, you can optimize your attention and focus level. This is turn helps your breathing to become harmonious. It turns out that these very simple functions that we use each day are critical to excellent health of the entire body.

Breathing Gives Insight

By visiting my local museum, my breathing helped me enjoy the paleontologists and gave me extra focus while I read and viewed the remarkable National Geographic photos taken in our beautiful world’s nature. It just dawned on me why a museum has benches. Not only does it offer rest, but it helps us to breathe which in turn promotes good health. Museums not only offer knowledge, but help our bodies work in the best optimal ways to take it all in.

FOUR- Appreciate the World Around You

Simply enjoy your surroundings. As neurologist Candice Pert of the University of Minnesota says, “What you are thinking at any moment is changing your biochemistry.” Since we know that environment can create or reduce our stress, she knows that the brain, nervous & endocrine, and immune systems are continually talking to each other. It’s up to us to be in charge of our environment.

Enjoy Your Surroundings

I enjoyed the cries of the babies, the loud yells and laughter of school aged children on their field trip, the beautiful buildings, the water fountain, and parents as chaperones. Watch your calm face come back. As you wash your hands at the restroom of the museum and look into the mirror, you just might spot an old familiar friend, your smile.

You Create a Healthy Life

It is up to us to be 100% everyday. If we can’t, we need to remove ourselves from the stress and work on us. With a clear head and having no stress at that moment, you’re creating endorphins that can help increase your energy and get you back into your life.  Using your new gratitude journal, your writing will help decrease your stress and increase your mental health. Breathing out the bad and bringing in the good is our job to keep our bodies healthy. Planning a day to explore a new environment is up to us to make that first step.

A Healthy Body Starts Now

Before you move onto another blog post of mine, look up the free museum days in your area. Call a friend if you want companionship, however going alone is a wonderful way to connect with you. Look at your schedule, speak to your boss about needing a mental health day to help get back on track, and pack that favorite PB&J and an apple. Enjoy your new surroundings and have the time of your life!