Life doesn’t end at 70 years old! If you have a parent or grandparent who’s getting to that age, life isn’t over. As a matter of fact, there are some things that you can do specifically to help them live a very robust life, a comfortable life, and stay healthy with a long life ahead of them. Let me share some of those tips with you.
How important is staying active when you are older?
Staying active is incredibly important. If you just lie on the couch, things are gonna slow down. What are the seniors doing? Where are their interests? Seniors can be active and it may even be to volunteer. Maybe it’s where they’re passing on their wisdom or helping somebody else reach their goals. They’re at the point in life where they’re giving back, not taking from. And frankly, there’s no reason to have given up or be physically incapable of taking care of yourself unless there is a true major medical condition.
How do they stay active in Assisted Living?
When someone moves into one of our homes, we try to keep them active through exercise, senior yoga, music, pet therapy and so on. One of our residents last week had just gotten back from dancing. He went out to dance and enjoy time with friends, and then after a few hours, he came back to the house. He stays active and yet he’s in our assisted living home being taken care of 24/7, but obviously he has the energy.
Now If he just said “that’s it, I’m not going to go. I’m not going to ask my kids to pick me up and take me there.” He would just kind of slowly fade away. That’s not what we want. We want to keep them active.
Can my loved one play their own music, or do their own artwork?
We’ve got a lot of people that used to be former musicians or they used to sing in a barbershop quartet and things like that. You know it’s a lot of fun when you see a senior plug back into where they were when they were 10, 20 or 30 years younger. One of our residents has paintings on the wall in her bedroom that she did herself decades earlier. I said “we should get you an easel and some paint brushes and see what you can do,” and she just lit up. She was inspired.
Will the residents all have the same beliefs and ideas?
When you talk to somebody that has different ideas and they share what they believe and you share what you believe and you have that interaction and exchange of ideas… that is empowering! It’s growing. It gives you power, juice and energy. Seniors need that too.
You need to stay active physically and mentally. What you’re looking for is that community, the other people that are around them. Can that person who’s looking to move into your home, relate to the other residents in that home? And if they use to do something or want to do something, you can bring that activity in. All of those things can help keep a senior active.
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