Why the Beach Is Good for Your Mental Health

#beach,#water #sun #mentalhealth #physicalhealth

When the sun is out, and warm weather is in the forecast, heading to the beach is a no-brainer for most. But what makes the beach such an excellent place for mental health? Three words—water, sun, and air. All of these natural elements offer some form of mental health benefits that helps the mind relax and allow the opportunity for social gathering.

Being Near Crisp Blue Water Can Improve Your Overall Health

Being near blue bodies of water like oceans, pools, rivers, lakes, and ponds can potentially provide various mental and physical health benefits such as:

Improved relaxation
Better social interactions
A boost in brain health
Enhanced physical activity

Because of the many benefits of being near water, health practitioners are beginning to recommend getting near (or going in) bodies of water to improve your overall well-being.

Vitamin D From the Sun Can Help Boost Your Mood

Experts have found moderate sunlight to positively influence mental well-being. The sun can help increase serotonin levels, a neurotransmitter involved in mood functioning. That big yellow star also helps us make vitamin D, which can be important to our mood.

Don't Stay Out in the Sun for Too Long Though!

Of course, too much sun can adversely affect the body and skin, but as long as measures are taken to protect the skin (slathering on some sunscreen), a few hours at the beach can be just the right amount of sun you need to reap benefits.

Fresh Air Is Always a Good Thing

Fresh air is generally beneficial to both the mind and body. Researchers discovered that participating in outdoor activities has a more significant impact on mental health than doing those activities indoors.

Another research study surveyed university students, and many individuals indicated nature and leisure time to be vital contributors to their well-being and health.6 It was found that being in nature makes them feel happy, thus allowing people to associate nature with positive feelings like tranquility, peace, relaxation, and ease.

Even doing the simplest of acts outside can make you feel good. You can reap nature's benefits by taking a deep breath or putting aside some time for a quick jog.

Maybe even grab your yoga mat and do your usual meditation outside, or grab your work laptop and work outside for a nice change of scenery.

Relaxing On the Beach Helps You Destress

The beach provides a space for both children and adults to be physically active while being in nature but primarily allows the opportunity to destress and have fun. Interestingly enough, research actually backs this up!

The ability to relax and set aside other tasks for a few hours is one of the reasons people look forward to going to the beach.

A study showed that people experience a number of health benefits by taking a trip to the beach. When you're at the beach running around in the sand or going for a swim, your brain gets the chance to destress because you're having fun and engaging with nature.

You Can Practice Mindfulness at the Beach

The beach is a great place to practice mindfulness. Approaches to mindfulness include listening to the ocean’s waves or the laughter of others, feeling the breeze of the wind or the coarse sand on your toes, and water and sun on your skin.

It's the Perfect Place to Bond With Other People

There are a lot of sporting activities you can participate in at the beach. Whether you're a skilled player or not, you can join in on a game of volleyball, football, soccer, rugby, or kickball while at the beach. Engaging in these sports gives you time to interact, bond with others, and maybe even make new friends.

What This Means For You

Whether your goal is to work on your tan, feel the sand between your toes, or dip into the cool ocean water, the beach can find a way to put a smile on your face. Enjoying all of this with loved ones makes this experience even more remarkable. So, if you want some time outdoors and a little mood boost, consider a trip (or two) to the beach.

Are we really listening to what MLK had to say?

#MartinLutherKingJr #MLK #CivilRights #DrKing In 2020, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday falls in a national election year, one that reminds us of the importance of voting rights, citizenship and political activism to the health of our democracy. King imagined America as a "beloved community" capable of defeating what he characterized as the triple threats of racism, militarism and materialism. The passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, alongside the 1954 Brown Supreme Court decision, represents the crown jewels of the civil rights movement's heroic period. Yet King quickly realized that policy transformations alone, including the right to vote, would be insufficient in realizing his goal of institutionalizing radical black citizenship toward the creation of the "beloved community." King argued that justice was what love looked like in public. 2020 also marks the 55th anniversary of the passage of the Voting...

A Single Dose of CBD Reset the Brains of People at High Risk of Psychosis

#CBD #Psychosis #MentalHealth #Medicine #Neuroscience #Psychology #Weed P sychosis, a severe mental disorder characterized by a loss of grip on reality, can include unsettling hallucinations and delusions . As no one’s been able to pin down a single cause of psychosis, it’s been even harder to pin down a treatment. But researchers behind a new JAMA Psychiatry study seem to be on the right track. In the study, they report that they’ve found a way to reset the psychosis-afflicted brain using an unlikely plant: marijuana. Researchers are increasingly finding evidence that the active components of marijuana can help ease symptoms in people with epileptic seizures , chronic pain , and post-traumatic stress disorder , but there’s much to be learned about its relationship to psychosis. The most well-known cannabinoid Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol — better known as THC — has previously been linked to the development of psychosis...

Coping With Moods: The Challenge of the Turbulent Mind

#Mood #Impulses #selfregulate #selfsoothe #Triple5LightTherapy #BlackMaleTherapist #Psychotherapy The power of moods and impulses can be overwhelming, but we can learn to self-regulate and self-soothe through awareness practices like meditation and mindfulness. By developing a healthy dialogue with our emotional nature, we can access deeper parts of ourselves and become more resilient in the face of stress and pressure. Rather than being swept away by our ever-shifting moods, we can learn to pause and reflect before acting. by Gillian McCann, Ph.D., and Gitte Bechsgaard, RP

4 Strategies for practicing Radical Self-Acceptance

Radical Self-Acceptance Painting by Jennifer Mazzucco #mindfulness #self-judgment #RadicalSelfAcceptance #negativethinkingpatterns #thoughts Radical acceptance involves acknowledging how life unfolds without resistance, even if we don't like things at any given moment. It can take effort to apply this principle. How can we begin to accept our situation and ourselves despite experiencing anxiety, uncertainty, and fear? Why self-acceptance is not the same as complacency. It is essential now, more than ever, to practice radical self-acceptance. This means training ourselves to find inner stability despite unpredictable external circumstances. Ultimately, we are responsible for acknowledging our hidden wounds, which can lead to personal and collective growth. Radical self-acceptance is the opposite of avoiding responsibility or giving up in self-defeat. It requires pushing against old ways of being to open the door to deep healing. Embracing radical self-acceptance allows us to int...

Triple5Light Therapy

Search This Blog