By Nanette Wiser
SPIRIT Sit, Stay, Heal is part of the Museum of Fine Art’s Picture of Health initiative. On the 4th Thursday of every month, therapy dog teams arrive in the museum gardens to facilitate stress and anxiety relief for our members, visitors, and guests. Frontline health care workers get complimentary admission; use discount code WOOF and present employee badge at front desk upon arrival. Another MFA program in this initiative is MFA Mood Tours that allow visitors to view the museum’s collection through the lens of six emotions: Joy/Celebration, Grief/Reslience, Empowerment, Calm, Self-Reflection and Relationships.
MIND A podcast in the morning helps set the tone for a mindful day. The Psychology Podcast with Scott Barry Kaufman, Under the Cortex and NPR’s Hidden Brain explore how the mind works and reveals new research into how we think, behave and learn about the world. Also illuminating is CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s book Keep Sharp: Build A Better Brain at Any Age.
BODY About one in five adults ages 20 to 69 has suffered permanent damage to their hearing from exposure to loud noise, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysis. About 53 percent of those reported no job-related noise exposure, meaning they damaged their hearing doing things at home or in the community, like using a leaf blower, sporting events, car races, woodworking projects, boating, motorcycle riding, listening to music with ear buds or headphones, exercise classes with pumped up music or going to concerts, even classical music. Loud noise destroys the tiny hair cells in your inner ear, and they don’t regenerate. Consider downloading a smartphone app to measure the sound in your environment, then carry a pair of disposable foam earplugs you can pop in anytime you’re in a noisy environment.
THANKSGIVING Gratitude is the reason for the season. For a poignant holiday centerpiece, anchor a small tree branch in a vase with colorful orange and brown glass rocks. Give everyone a paper leaf and ask them to write what they are on grateful for this year. Punch a hole for string and hang from the tree. Another new tradition to add this turkey day? Thanksgiving Day is also National Family Health History Day. Give everyone a list of relatives on both sides of the family tree and ask them to write down health conditions and when they experienced the diagnosis. A CDC free online tool – My Family Health Portrait helps you organize your family history, a helpful tool for your doctors.
www.phgkb.cdc.gov/FHH/html/index.html