May is Mental Health Awareness Month

May is a reminder to take care of not only your physical health, but your mental health as well. As life gets busier and schedules fill up, it is important to make time to slow down, recharge, and reconnect with yourself. Stress and burnout can build quietly, especially when balancing work, family, and everyday responsibilities. At KEES, we encourage everyone to take a moment for themselves, even if it is just a long weekend away to relax, reset, and feel grounded again.

The repetitive sound of waves crashing can produce soothing effects. As waves come in, crash, and then recede again, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, which slows down the brain and helps promote relaxation. Shuster describes this as "de-stimulating our brains". This process makes the part of the brain responsible for stress emotions shrink, while areas such as empathy and memory grow.

Taking deep breaths of ocean air provides instant benefits. Negative ions are oxygen ions with an extra electron attached, produced via water molecules. These negative ions found in ocean air can essentially calm your brain. The negatively ionized air can alleviate symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Scientific research from Richard Shuster shows that just being near the color blue has led to "an overwhelming amount of people to be associated with feelings of calm and peace". Looking out at the ocean can change the frequency of brain waves to match that of the sea.

Even during the fall and winter months being out in the sun has the same beneficial production of Vitamin D as spring and summer. This essential vitamin helps our bodies produce calcium, which can prevent diabetes, MS, heart disease and reduces the chance of cancer.

Walking barefoot on the sand has been proven to have a number of stimulating benefits to both our physical body and minds. Our feet contain a rich network of nerves and acupuncture points. Our soles touching the sand stimulates these points and can produce a grounding, calming effect. Going barefoot also allows feet to absorb free ions on the Earth's surface in much the same way that our lungs are capable of absorbing ions in the air.

Science has proven that looking at images of the beach and listening to the sound of ocean waves can still produce a peaceful and relaxing state of being. Follow us on social media to add beach content to your regular scrolling.