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Craftsmanship (Doing Fun Things with Your Hands as Excellent Mental and Physical Therapy)

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Finding a unique angle for physical health for us who are over 60 often means moving away from general "staying active" advice and focusing on the surprising, the community-driven, or the deeply specialized aspects of wellness. How much fun it is to focus on the physical benefits of high-intensity, detailed hobbies—like leatherworking, woodworking, painting, refurbishing, or just making things like simple toys, storage containers, games, and such from user-friendly kits  for anywhere from beginners to mega-experts?!  Has anyone seen bottle cap art ? What an inexpensive way to create beautiful items! Just save bottle caps and browse ways to create art with them on Youtube and such. On to more clarity about benefits...fine motor skills and precision with hands and even whole body required for handcrafting serve as a form of occupational therapy, keeping hands nimble and our minds fresh and focused while creating something of lasting value for self and/or others. How ideal is th...
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The "Second Brain" and Why Your Salad has Opinions

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We are late, and we are sorry! So, you thought your brain was the undisputed CEO of your life? That’s cute. In reality, your gut is essentially a shadowy, underground "second brain" (the enteric nervous system) that’s currently running a 24/7 smear campaign against your productivity.  While you’re trying to focus on a spreadsheet, your microbiome in your digestive system is busy producing about 95% of your body’s serotonin. That’s right, and what's that? The chemicals responsible for your happiness are being manufactured in the same place that currently feels like a war zone because you decided "extra spicy" was a personality trait at lunch.  If your gut flora is unhappy, you’re unhappy, and no amount of "positive affirmations" can override a trillion bacteria screaming in a language made of bloating and regret. Let’s talk about the biological audacity of the Gut-Brain Axis. It’s a literal high-speed fiber-optic cable (the vagus nerve) that allows your...
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Heavy Metal: Not Just for Your Playlist 🎸

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This image truly shows the metals we are discussing, created by Google Gemini! Thank you, GG! The left is good to eat, but please refrain from eating what is on the right. Ever feel like you’re running on low battery? It might be that you’re literally missing the "hardware" that keeps your system glitch-free. While we usually think of "metals" as things we build skyscrapers or cars out of, your body is basically a high-tech organic machine that needs a steady supply of certain metals to function. Don't believe us? Read on, brothers and sisters. Here are the MVP (Most Valuable Plate) metals you need to keep in your internal rock band, and you might notice, we include plenty of plant-based choices: 1. Iron  If you aren’t getting enough iron, your cells are basically waiting for a package that’s never coming. Iron is the basic need of your hemoglobin, which carries oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. Without it: You’re tired, pale, and have the energy...
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Mind vs Mood? The Difference and Why Both Matter

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(A cuddle with your pet  listening to your favorite song, and playing with a toy will help a lot, silly as it may sound.) We often speak of mental and emotional health as if they are the same. Research tells us how different they are but also how they are very much related. Maybe the combo is like a computer. With Mental Health as the Hardware: It's how we handle information and make decisions. But our mental health does experience depression and anxiety.  And Emotional as the Software: It's how we figure out how we feel and respond to stress and relaxation.  We can have a challenging mental health condition but still ne emotionally healthy. We can have "perfect" mental health but struggle with our emotional regulation. We can take care both...as important as our physical health.  How do we take care of both?  The "Doorway Reset":  When we walk through a physical doorway, we should take one deep, intentional breath, a relaxed one.. It’s a "...
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Feeling Bad without a Darn Reason? You're Not Alone...Ganbatte!!

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  We’ve all seen the health influencers glowing under ring lights, talking about pie-in-the-sky things like "optimization." We’ve also seen the brave stories of those battling clear, diagnosed illnesses. But there is a massive, silent population living in the Gray Zone of Health. They might be called the Walking Wounded. We're not talking about The Walking Dead . That's a popular TV show. The Walking Wounded? We've all been there, but no one talks about it. These are the people who feel "off" every single day for long periods of time, and they don't know why. Even with a weekend of sleep, still tired, down, and out. Maybe it’s a persistent brain fog that makes simple sentences feel like marathons, or a vague, wandering joint pain or pinched nerve. The writers of this blog know a lot about the latter. Anyways, you go to the doctor. You get the blood work. You wait for the call. And then comes the sentence that should be a relief, but feels like a door...
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Verbs Could be Better Than Vitamins? Strange Possibility, Huh?

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  and learn a new language, sil vous plait! We’ve all heard the pitch: learning a new language "broadens your horizons." But, it's so difficult. Who has time? Make the time.  Why? Did you know it’s also a secret weapon for your brain, heart, and—surprisingly—your dignity? ​If you're currently struggling to remember if a table is masculine or feminine in French or Spanish, take heart. You aren’t just failing at grammar; you’re winning at life. Here’s how. ​1. Mental Health   Like a Gym Membership for Your Gray Matter ​Your brain is quite a lazy creature that just wants to veg out and sit on the couch. Learning a language forces it to do something like mental CrossFit. Studies show that learning more than one language can delay the onset of dementia by up to 4 to 5 years . Better than nice! ​ The Reality: You’re building "cognitive reserve." ​ The Experience: You spend ten minutes trying to remember the word for "spoon," effectively forcing you...
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Whodathunk that Tart Cherry Juice Has So Much Power to Heal the Human Body?!

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Might want to replace one cup of your of coffee for a glass of tart cherry juice. You will love you for it! Tart cherry juice, particularly from Montmorency cherries, is quite effective for reducing inflammation, relieving joint pain/arthritis, speeding up exercise recovery, and improving sleep quality even due to its high concentration of anthocyanins and natural melatonin. Now, why did TropicFeather's Jill and I, Suzanne, come up with this as a topic for our health blog? Suzanne has suffered from a pinched nerve for 5 1/2 months now. She received physical therapy twice a week that only relieved the pain for a few hours each time. She's tried all kinds of things, but guess what seems to be working all of a sudden? Tart cherry juice! She's drinking about 8- 12 ounces per day for the last 3 days, and the pain has lessened quite a bit. The tingling and numbing of her left hand and forearm still acts when she holds something heavy in the hand or leans over to pick something up...
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