Tag: Relaxation

Music For Your Mind

Listening to music is enjoyable and entertaining, but did you know that music could make you healthier?

Music can energize your body, relax your mind, help with pain management, and it can even boost your mental performance and slow cognitive decline. Music can influence your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Here are just a few ways that music impacts your health.

Music can help you pick up the pace when walking and running. Listening to music while you exercise changes your perception of exertion and you are less likely to notice that you are working harder. Listening to fast-paced music can also help boost your motivation and enjoyment of physical activity.

Music can boost mental performance. Instrumental tracks, played quietly in the background, are best, and research has shown that playing more upbeat music led to improvements in processing speed and benefits in memory in older adults.

Music can be an effective way to cope with stress, to soothe the mind, and help you relax. If you have symptoms of depression, music therapy can be a safe and effective way to help manage those symptoms.

Listening to music can be very helpful in the management of chronic pain. A study with fibromyalgia patients found that those who listened to music just one hour a day experienced a significant reduction in pain in comparison to a control group.

Finally, music can help you fall asleep and get better quality sleep. Playing relaxing classical music can be a safe, effective, and affordable remedy for insomnia.

Source: Walk Kansas 2022

By: Ashley Svaty

Prioritize Self-Care

Life is busy and as a result you may neglect your own well-being which can lead to stress, irritability, moodiness, and even depression. By taking care of yourself you will be more relaxed, content, stronger, better able to help others, and more confident.  Slipping away from your daily routine doesn’t have to occur for extended periods of time-it can mean taking a bath, reading a book, walking your pet, playing with your kids or grandkids, or going to your bedroom with your door closed to sit in solitude for a bit. Below are various examples of self-care, feel free to try as many as you wish!

  • Relax. Relaxation allows you to experience more energy, sleep better, build up your immunity, concentrate better, and much more.  Relaxation can occur through taking a hot bath, reading a book, getting a massage or even taking a few deep breaths.
  • Eat a nutritious diet. Wholesome, nutritious foods provide you with more energy, combat depression by keeping your brain functioning at its best, and prevent numerous other health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancers.
  • Increase your physical activity. Exercise affects overall physical and mental well-being.  It increases strength, cardiovascular conditioning, flexibility, balance, and muscle mass.  It also boosts self-esteem along with confidence and helps lower stress and anxiety. Adding a 10-minute calming walk to your to-do list is a fantastic way to sneak in daily self-care.
  • Finding humor in daily situations and laughing more throughout your day is truly the best medicine. Laughter has the ability to increase the “feel good” hormones in the body, called endorphins and can reduce stress, lower depression and help your body heal. Watch a funny movie or show, go to a comedy club, take a comedy class, or simply laugh with a close friend or loved one.

To view more on taking time for yourself, access a downloadable Self-Care 2020 September calendar.

By: Ashley Svaty