Let’s face it, everyone could stand to save a little money. Especially with the average price of a movie ticket costing $8 per person, finding something to do that also improves our mental, spiritual, emotional or physical well-being is definitely high on most people’s to do lists.
The purpose of this article is share with you 28 FREE things you can do right now to improve your health.
I want to preface, that I use the word “health” to encapsulate four main categories: mental, spiritual, emotional or physical health.
Of course all four categories are equally important, and no single suggestion that is made amongst the 28 recommendations is touted as being a panacea or one size fixes all. Each of the 28 FREE suggestions can help to improve your well-being, and you must experiment and experience it for yourself, to find the ones that really have a positive impact in your own life.
Don’t just blindly take my advice, go out and give it a try. You might find some work better than others and that even combining some of the items on the list may also be effective.
Enough preamble, here are the 28 FREE Things You Can Do To Improve Your Health (In no particular order of importance) :
- Sunsets: I can tell you nothing greater than watching a sunset. How can it improve you health? Of course I can find tons of supporting reports and articles to back up my claim. (Confirmation bias…) But rather just test how the heck do you feel when you see a sunset. If you response is like me, you absolutely love it, then do more of it. Joy is a great signal toward better health. Can you say endorphins?
- Walking: We all know the countless studies on the health benefits of walking 30 minutes a day. In addition, it’s been said to lower your risk to certain diseases. But best of all it’s absolutely FREE and relatively easy to do.
- Burpees/Jogging/Running/Cardio: I grouped all these together, because, unlike walking, these require a bit more physical exertion. And like walking they cost nothing to do. Just your time. Moreover, incorporating a FREE HIIT interval monitor to accompany you can add an extra level of intensity.
- Meditation: If you are a regular reader of this site, then you will know that I love to meditate. I meditate twice a day, in the morning and evening. It’s one of the best things I do to keep me centered and more attentive. For some of us, life seems to be moving at a million miles an hour. Meditation is something that requires no present knowledge nor special skill or talent. You just sit quietly, close your eyes, and focus only on being a silent observer of your thoughts, emotions, and sounds.
- Writing/Keeping a Journal: It’s been said, that if your life is good enough to live it’s good enough to write and journal about. The simple act of writing one’s thoughts onto a piece of paper can be incredibly powerful. In 2003 I read a great book, by Juila Cameron, called The Artist’s Way, and in the book she has her readers do an exercise in which she calls “morning pages” . The concept is to write each and every morning when you wake up, at least 3 pages (8 1/2 X 11 pages) of whatever enters your mind. The key is to just write, nonstop, uncensored. You write the first thing(s) that pop into you head. You do this for 90 days, and it is supposed to help one become more creative. I can speak from personal experience having done this, and it is fantastic.
- Music: Sound or music therapy has been around for as long as there has been music. Probably the most important thing about music is really how you feel. Of course, there are sound therapies geared toward Alpha, Beta, Theta and Delta frequencies, that are designed to relate better during varied frequencies of one’s brain activity. What I am suggesting is something a bit less sophisticated. Find music that puts you in a good mood, and hopefully has positive lyrics as well. That’s it. You can easily go to YouTube and find your favorite artist and song. To download a song, just add a FREE browser extension to your favorite internet browser that allows you to download from YouTube.
- Read: This one might be a bit outdated as hardly anyone seems to read nowadays. There are a ton of FREE resources, but probably the very best is your local library. It costs nothing and just about every city in just about every country has a local library. Yes there is even a handy dandy map of the all the libraries worldwide. If that is too archaic for your tastes then there are tons of FREE online resources:
- FREE Books – 20,000 plus classics and for your iPhone folks here you go.
- Project Gutenberg – FREE eBooks nothing to download.
- The Internet Archive – Home of the Wayback Machine
- Creative: When you are more creative things seem to just flow a lot easier. The trick is finding your creativity buttons. A great way, is to spend time doing the things you love to do. If you don’t know what you love to do, take note of the movies, books, magazines, television programs that you you frequently like to read and watch. These are oftentimes great indicators into what gets the juices flowing. And then work from there. Creativity is sure to be just around the corner.
- Volunteer: The effects of have been the topic of many studies. I think what’s worth noting is that when someone is depressed or feeling down, it usually the result of not being in full expression. A fantastic way to get out of one’s down funk is to stop focusing on oneself and to focus on someone or someones. Helping others is the best way to make one happy.
- Time in the sun: Your body is a walking and breathing pharmacy. And with this pharmacy, which is your body, there are no nasty side effects. Your body makes just the right dose at the right time. One of those great natural wonders that your body makes is Vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential for healthy bones, and we get most of our vitamin D from exposure to sunlight. In addition, a lack of Vitamin D is now being linked to cognitive impairment. To get a healthy dose all you need to do is spend 10-15 minutes in the sun. Best of all it’s FREE.
- Go to park. There is a park in just about every single country. But don’t take my word for it. Look for yourself. National parks, however, often do charge. But the trick is where there is a National Park, you will be sure to find a less crowded, and smaller companion park nearby. It never fails, where there is a National Park, I have always been able to find a smaller park close by that does not charge anything, and that is sort of an extension of the larger National Treasure.
- Go to beach: For now, beaches for the most part and FREE, excluding parking. But you can always find a FREE beach to walk, sit, meditate, practice sports. Being a beach guy my whole life I can attest to the fact that time at the beach is by and far one of the healthiest things you can do for your mind, body and spirit. Not to mention all the positive ions coming off of the ocean water.
- Learn something new: Life is all about growth and contribution if we are not learning and growing than we are pretty much stagnant or dead. Learning something new each and every day, is the key to long-term mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being. It’s been shown that to learn something as easy as juggling a soccer ball from one foot to the other, can create new brain cells. What was once thought of as impossible.
- Movies: This is one of my favorites because it costs nothing with the internet and YouTube, Vimeo , Daily Motion or rent for FREE with your public library card. Movies are a quick and easy way to change your mental and emotional state. I love autobiographies, documentaries, and inspirational movies like Shawshank Redemption.
- Sing/whistle: Rather than recite various studies on the health benefits of singing and whistling, all one needs to do is to look at how one feels when they sing while listening to their favorite song or whistling. No double blind controlled study is required. Just do a “gut” check. How do you feel? If you feel good, keep on doing it, if not, do something else.
- Dance: Again, this is something that you can decide whether you like to do it or not, by how you feel. There are certain songs that you just can’t help but begin to get up and dance. Each of us has that song(s) that is/are special.
- Swim: Water is one of nature’s special re-energizers. I am not sure why, as the late great motivational speaker and writer liked to say, “Who knows why? Its just one of those great mysteries of the world.” Water definitely falls into that category. And it costs nothing to run a nice warm bath with sea salts or just take a nice refreshing shower.
- Plant a garden:As I mentioned earlier, life really comes down to two things: growth and contribution. Living to your full capacity by growing and maximizing your potential and positively contributing to the planet, your community, your friends and family. I cannot think of anything more fulfilling that falls into that category than planting a garden. It’s what I like to call, W3, you win, those around you win, and the planet wins. It’s beneficially in so many ways.
- People and/or animal watch: We are social creatures. We thrive on being social. That’s probably why, solitary confinement is considering one of the most cruelest forms of torture on the planet. We need human companionship in one form or another. An easy way is to just go outside to a local venue like a park, restaurant, mall, and just sit and chill, and watch the people as they go by. I added animals, because if you are in nature alone, it’s easy to find birds, squirrels, rabbits, or in my case peacocks roaming freely in the local park near my house.
- Drink water: Okay, I realize this one may not be entirely FREE, if you pay for water in your apartment or house, but it’s pretty darn close to FREE, when you compare what plastic bottled water costs in comparison to water from your tap. I use a gravity filter to clean out any toxins or chemicals, however that is a personal preference. It’s been shown that supposed bottled water is just as or even worse than water from the tap. In Madrid, the water is known for its purity, because it comes from the mountains. If your water source is not that clean, like in Las Vegas, where I lived for some time, than a water filter is a great idea. There is an initial cost of the filter but they usually last 3-6 months. This one bullet point should be semi-FREE. But I wanted to include it as it is super cheap, and costs almost nothing.
- Moon watching: This one may sound a bit fluffy or hippie like, but the moon does affect our bodies, just any woman out there with regards to her menstrual cycle.
- Affirmations: You are what you believe, and a part of our belief system is formed by the internal and external conversations we say to ourselves. Affirming that life is great, is not pollyanna. It comes down to what you focus on. If you focus on the dread of life then you will get more of that, which might be explained by our reticular activating system which is a part of the brain that brings to attention those things you are most focused on. For example, if you have a red Volkswagen, you may tend to notice more red Volkswagens on the street. Affirmations sort of plays into this, by directing your conscious and your subconscious on that which you want it to focus on. You are in charge. It may sound a bit new age, but it works. Believing you are talented or gifted and saying this to yourself can help to form said opinion. Try doing something and saying the opposite and see how far you get.
- Visualizations: The power to visualize is certainly very effective. Your brain really can’t tell from practicing and visualizing in your head and from the real thing. If you combine affirmations and visualizations on a daily basis you will be astounded in what you can create. You are in essence programming your mind. It’s sort of like the branded content and propaganda that we are sometimes subjected to by the mass media. Only this time you are in charge.
- Write goals: When you write down your goals you are telling your brain that these things are important. Writing goals, with a framework can also help. For example, one of many ways to write out one’s goals is to follow the SMART method: SMART goals. Specific ; Measurable; Assignable; Realistic; Time-bound.
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- Specific – target a specific area for improvement.
- Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.
- Assignable – specify who will do it.
- Realistic – state what results can realistically be achieved, given available resources.
- Time-related – specify when the result(s) can be achieved.
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- Time with friends & family: As mentioned in #19, we are social creatures. We love the company of others. Anyone that says differently is not being honest with themselves or has not learned the social skills growing up to warrant spending time with others. Social media is a form of socializing but it omits the human face to face interactions. We thrive on this. Just look at infants that are not touched, held or nurtured as babies. There have been countless studies on this subject. Spending valuable time with others is critical to one’s health and well-being.
- Smile and laugh: This one is pretty self-explanatory. Smiling and laughing can actually boost one’s immune system. When we smile and laugh we can create endorphins in our bodies that are like happy drugs for our bodies.
- Rest & sleep: When it comes to the best sure-fire method to recharge your mind, body and spirit, nothing comes even close to rest and more importantly sleep. I was so intrigued with this subject that I wrote an article on the benefits of sleep.
- Self-massage or stretching: We all could use some down time and massage is a great way to release the daily stresses that we confront. Unfortunately, the cost may be prohibitive for most folks. Rest assured (no pun intended) you can do it yourself. Something as easy as getting a tennis ball, golf ball or any rubber ball for that matter and rolling it on the soles of your feet can do wonders. The human foot and ankle is a strong and complex mechanical structure containing 26 bones, 33 joints (20 of which are actively articulated), and more than a hundred muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Another great thing you can do is myofascial release on a foam roller. Of course, these cost, but you could always opt to do some stretching, which costs nothing. And rolling on your back as you are huddled in a ball while on some sort of padded surface is a close second to the foam roller.
