Healthy Lessons From Mom

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms and mom figures.  “There is no role in life that is more essential than that of a mother.”  I can attest and am forever grateful for mine.  Here are four lessons my mother has taught me throughout the years and, in turn, how it can help us all live with MÁS (more) Health. 

Stay Organized

I don’t know if anyone has utilized lists, three-ring binders, post-its, and calendars better than my mom.   The word clutter does not exist in her vocabulary, and she does not get to the point where things get disorderly.  Everything has a place, and more importantly, ask her where something is, and she knows where it is.

Health Benefits of being organized:

  • Stress relief-staying organized lowers cortisol level, your body’s primary stress hormone.
  • Better sleep-staying organized helps slow down a racing mind and prioritize your zzz’s.
  • Better productivity-staying organized helps you focus on your work and limit distractions that come from clutter.

Send a Card With a Handwritten Note

My mom is great about sending cards with a handwritten note for big or small celebrations.  I know she catches people by pleasant surprise when they receive a card in the mail.  Sending cards with a message reveals thoughtfulness and can make an immediate positive impact on the recipient.  

Health Benefits of being thoughtful/kind:

  • Increases the production of serotonin which is the feel-good, calming, and happy chemical in the body.
  • Boosts oxytocin in the body.  Oxytocin reduces inflammation which is responsible for many chronic conditions. 
  • Experience the “helpers high” as the brain’s pleasure and rewards center lights up as if you were the recipient of a good deed. 

Tend to the Yard

My friends and neighbors would often ask how often the gardeners did our yard.  Our home had lush green lawns, trimmed hedges, and was well-landscaped with plants and flowers.  To this day, it is one of the best landscaped homes in the neighborhood.  And the gardeners? No other than my mom (and dad. They teamed up on this one!).  Tending to the yard is a hobby my mom enjoys, and it pays back. 

Health Benefits of Doing Yardwork:

  • Cardiovascular exercise via planting, raking, shoveling, etc. 
  • Soaking in Vitamin D from the sun-the best antidepressant there is!
  • Therapeutic through seeing the accomplishment of your work.

Be Encouraging and Supportive

As a six-year-old playing baseball on the A’s T-ball team, I had to make an abrupt exit from a game while covering my position at first base.  I went directly to my mom and told her I had to pee.  We hustled to the restroom, but unfortunately, did not make it in time.  I had wet my pants.  With my mom’s help of cleaning me up the best she could and telling the team that I jammed my finger, I was able to continue my all-star play.  I did not want to return to the field, but she shrugged it off as no big deal and, and so I thought the same.  

It’s hard to find a better life cheerleader than my mom.  Whether it was with school, sports, music, and arts when my brother and I were younger, and now with the everyday life obstacles as adults, my mom has always been there with encouragement and support.  To say her encouragement and support throughout the years means a lot is an understatement. 

Health Benefits of Being an Encourager/Supporter:

  • Increase feelings of positivity.
  • Enhance and deepen relationships.

To MAS health,

Michael

 

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