Exercise

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   "Exercise can improve your mood, stamina and sex life. How many more reasons do you need to get moving?"   Mayo Clinic Newsletter
   
   Exercise also controls weight, maintains health, improves energy, improves one's emotional status, helps us sleep better and can be fun.  If you do not like to exercise, perhaps it is because you have not found an exercise form that is fun for you.  I often see groups of women walking together, or groups biking together.  For some people, exercise is more fun when done in groups.  If you need help with motivation, perhaps joining a class is the answer.  Whatever form of exercise you find fun, you are more likely to stick with -- and that is the important part.  What exercise could be fun for you today?

Exercise can improve your mood, stamina and sex life. How many more reasons do you need to get moving?

Accepting Gifts

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   "Accept this gift, so I can see myself as giving." Mark Nepo

It is difficult for some of us, perhaps especially those of us who are caregivers, to accept help from others.  This quote from Nepo gives us a reason to ask for and accept help -- so that others can see themselves as giving.  When we refuse a gift, we on some level refuse the humanity of the other person.  As caregivers we have far too much to do.  Let's ask for and accept help from others.  

Honoring Our Body

"As long as you do not live totally in the body, you do not live totally in the Self." B. K. S. Ivengar

Most of us are taught from a very early age to hate or, at least, disregard our bodies.  Yesterday, in a long day in which I took my husband to medical appointments, I had a headache, kink in my neck and felt 'out of my body'.  I have come to recognize this 'out of body' feeling as stress, and I think we actually do, when experiencing too much trauma, check out of our bodies.  A wonderful yoga class last night enabled me to reenter and inhabit my body.  Our disconnect from our bodies does immeasurable harm in the forms of disease.  Today, I invite you to think of 5 things you really, really like about your body.  After all, your body is your vehicle in life.  Let us learn to love it.  

Deaths from Dementia

"Alzheimer's and other dementia diseases account for many more deaths than we've realized, a new study concludes, making it nearly as lethal as the nation's two biggest killers, heart disease and cancer."
USA Today, March 6, 2014

This is not surprising information, as undoubtedly many deaths which are really caused by dementia, are attributed to pneumonia, falls, and other dementia-related causes.  Dementia is always lethal, and because people think of it as a memory disease, they do not always connect the disease with the death.  So, instead of the estimated 85,000 annual deaths by dementia, it is more likely closer to 500,000.  This means also that the disease is much more costly than previously recognized.  Research from the Center for Brain Health in Cleveland found that dementia is probably costlier than either heart disease or cancer.  

Suffering

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   "We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it to the full." Marcel Proust
   
   

   Mental health professionals would likely agree that to go through a feeling to the other side, we must experience it.  That is true as much for joy as suffering, but suffering -- or other emotions we deem negative -- are more likely to be resisted.  For some reason I have been experiencing more grieving than usual.  I suppose it is in response to Dwane's decline in functioning, but it still is a surprise to me.  I think it is important that we who are caregivers do our grieving.  Since it is difficult for me to cry, I think I will rent a very sad movie, like Steel Magnolias, in order to facilitate the cry I feel I need.  How do you grieve the emotions of sadness that are a part of the caregiver's journey?

"You cannot restore someone to their Connection with Source by belittling them or by punishing them, or by being disgusted with them. It is only through love that you can return anyone to love. And if you do not have a way of returning them to love, they will always be a problem to your society." Abraham

In the above context, Abraham is talking about the way we treat criminals; but the same could be be said for people with any disability -- to include dementia.  People rarely ask me how my husband is doing -- I think because they are uncomfortable with the subject.  In restaurants people have sometimes been obviously uncomfortable with the difficulty he has eating.  I think ageism is still very much a factor in our society, especially if the older person also has some limitations.  As caregivers, we can model treating the person with dementia with respect.  It would only take a blow to the head, and any one of us could be in a similar position.

Our Oneness

"It is the practice of returning to whatever moment that we are living now that restores us, because only when fully in each moment can we draw strength from the Oneness of things." Mark Nepo

It is human to have our thoughts be in what is next, especially in times of challenge.  It is usually not so much the challenge itself that consumes our thoughts, but we let ourselves worry about what if this turns permanent or into a really bad situation.  Since much of my professional training has been in the observation of human behavior, I often am aware of the actions of others around me.  In a recent incident when some parcels were lost, it was instructive to me to see how differently the people responded to the incident.  To some it was as if the worst thing in the world had happened; to others the mishap was treated as a problem to be solved.  One negative incident does not mean we are doomed to endless negativity.  Let us look for ways to stay in the moment.  In that moment we are better able to see solutions.