🧠 A boost for your brain

It's Tuesday, Boston

😭 Need a reason to happy cry? The owners of the Boston Marathon‘s favorite golden duo, Spencer and Penny (who passed away this year), welcomed home a new puppy on Sunday. His name is Jimmy, and he is the best boy. Flag-holding training starts now.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Claritin szn

• Big restaurant week

• Mayor Mozart

Up first...

MENTAL HEALTH

Keeping your brain in check

It’s Mental Health Awareness Month. Which means it’s time to check in on the state of your head space. Brigham and Women’s Psychologist Dr. Natalie Dattilo uses the ESCAPE method with her patients, a low-cost and effective set of habits that are clinically proven to support one’s mental health.

Here’s how it breaks down:

🏋️ Exercise. This one may seem obvious, but there’s actually a specific kind of exercise that best supports mental health. “We're not talking about like 45 minutes of cardio every day. We're talking about short bursts of intermittent intensity throughout the day,” Datillo said. This could look like doing a HIIT workout at the gym or running up the stairs at the office. “It's about feeling like you challenged yourself and you did it on purpose.”

😴 Sleep. For Dattilo, “it’s quality over quantity,” as everyone’s sleep needs are different. So “whatever routine you can initiate and maintain that allows you to fall and stay asleep” is key (there’s a reason why bedtime routines for kids work). This also means going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, give or take 30 minutes (yes, even on weekends).

🤝 Connect. And it doesn’t have to be with people. “It can really be anything,” Dattilo said. “Nature, pets, community, a cause, yourself.” And while deep conversations with loved ones are important, research shows that loose tie associations are critical in helping us feel connected. This could be as simple as chatting about the weather with your barista or people watching in a park. “Aim to see faces every day,” Dattilo said.

❤️ Appreciation. We hear a lot about practicing gratitude, but it’s more important that we’re cultivating all positive emotions: Optimism, curiosity, awe. “You can’t make bad feelings go away, but you can strengthen the good ones,” Dattilo said. She has her patients pick three things they’re grateful for every day for 30 days (with no repeats), so at the end of the month, they’ll have nearly 100 unique items that brought them joy.

🤸 Play. “Making time for fun and enjoyment is good for your brain,” Dattilo said. Plus, the longer we go without activating our pleasure center, it gets harder to generate those positive feelings, which can be an early predictor of depression. And “play is an attitude, not an activity,” Datillo said. So just spicing up a mundane task like making coffee counts.

😮‍💨 Exhale. If the idea of meditating makes you squirm, Dattilo said you can start as small as doing three to five deep breaths. “Start breathing until you feel different … Anything is better than nothing,” Dattilo said. And if you’re ready to dabble in meditation, don’t worry too much about your mind wandering. Meditation “isn’t about feeling relaxed, it’s to learn how to focus and direct your focus more intentionally,” she said. And like all of these items, you’ll just get better the more you practice.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

💊 You might want to take a Claritin this week. Thanks to the fabulous weather we had this weekend, the flowers and trees are popping off, including the pollen count. And given that it’s going to be a very dry week with no soaking rain in the forecast, the pollen count will remain high through Friday. Birch, maple, oak, and elm will be the dominant pollen out and about, and you may start to see some pine pollen too (the stuff that turns your car yellow). ICYMI: Here’s our quick refresher on surviving allergy season.

🧐 All T stations will get a top-to-bottom inspection. That’s what Gov. Healey told WCVB’s “On the Record” in the wake of a pair of falling-debris incidents at Harvard Station. She said that T stations are in a "state of disrepair,” chalking up the problem to years of inattention. She said she wants the public to know that this is a top priority and that her team is taking this very seriously. “As you have seen already in four months, we are making moves to change things and change the course," she said, e.g. hiring a new MBTA GM and appointing a safety-chief. But “it will take some time.”

😋 It’s a big month for Boston restaurant openings. From the same team who brought you Mariel and Yvonne’s, Caveau, a new restaurant with a nightclub vibe, just opened downtown last week. The long-awaited Grace by Nia, a collab between restaurateur powerhouse Nia Grace and Big Night, will finally open its doors in the Seaport this Thursday, May 11. And a few days later on May 18, Stubby’s, a beloved Nantucket spot serving American and Jamaican comfort food will also open in the Seaport.

⛹️ You can soon play Bocce (for a good cause) in the Seaport. Project Paulie, a Boston-based fashion brand that raises money and awareness for local charitable orgs, will be activating three Bocce courts in the Seaport starting this weekend. Plus, a portion of the proceeds from game reservations will be donated to Project Bread, an organization providing food assistance for hungry families in Mass. Lanes will be open from May 13 through August 13. You can book your lane reservation here.

ONE LAST THING

Mayor Mozart

Mayor Wu can add Boston Symphony Orchestra performer to her resume.

Wu was the featured soloist during the second movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 at the BSO’s Concert for the City. She is a classically trained pianist but said she was a few years out of practice before she began prepping for the concert. You can see a clip of the mayor’s performance here.

While some previous mayors have featured in the Pops holiday shows, Wu made history as the first sitting mayor to perform an instrument with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

POP QUIZ!

👂 In addition to English, which two languages is Mayor Wu fluent in?

🎹 Thanks for reading! Way to make me feel bad about myself, Wu.

🚘 The results are in! Nearly 50% of respondent’s from yesterday’s poll said they’ll be driving or Ubering to the Eras Tour at Gillette. About 20% are hoping the Commuter Rail adds another train. You may want to pray a little harder.

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