Activities to Enjoy with Seniors Suffering from Alzheimer’s - Comfort Keepers Silicon Valley

Alzheimer’s or any other types of dementia cause damage to our brain cells that results in various cognitive impairments. Due to dementia, our senior loved ones face difficulty with memory functions that disrupts normal behavioral and thought processes. As a result, they cannot lead a normal life and get disconnected from the people around them.

However, keeping our senior loved ones engaged and active can help them in various ways to lead a better life. So, we should always try to have fun and do interesting stuff with them.

There are lots of benefits of keeping our senior loved ones engaged in activities.

●     Activities help to keep irritability and anxiety away.

●     Through various activities, we can stimulate their cognitive abilities to slow down the progression of the disease.

●     Various activities can stir their memories.

●     Participating in interesting activities together strengthen bonds among the seniors and the other family members.

●     Being involved with various tasks will help self-expression in seniors suffering from dementia.

●     Being active and engaged will improve the overall quality of life and the meaning of existence as a whole.

So, with these benefits in mind, we have brought to you some of the easiest but interesting activities that you can do with your senior loved ones.

●     Listen to music together. Or even better start singing in chorus.

●     Engage in creative activities like painting or making handicrafts.

●     Do gardening together.

●     Do some simple cooking or baking together.

●     Do the household chores like cleaning, dusting and organizing stuff. Such easy tasks can give an immense sense of accomplishment to our senior loved ones suffering from dementia.

●     Visit the nearby park or the botanical garden.

●     Read books that they used to like or read newspaper.

●     Play various games like puzzles or word making that involve the cognitive faculties.

●     Watch old family videos or photos together.

Always remember that not all the seniors will love the same kind of activities. So, you have to be discerning and have to do some improvisation. Try to recall what they used to like to do when they were adults and have a go with those activities with some modification that may be required for safety or practicality of the current situation.

Moreover, you can always start with something and keep improvising on the way taking the cues from how it is going and exactly what sort of activities are drawing the most attention and interest from our senior loved ones. 

Above all, always focus on the actual activity that you are doing not the result of it. As example focus on playing and having fun with puzzles instead of actually solving it. It is not that you have to succeed at every task that you take up. The act of being engaged and active matters the most in this case.

So, hopefully, with these ideas and suggestion at your disposal, you will have some great time ahead with your senior loved ones. For any kind of help and support regarding senior care and well-being do not hesitate to contact Comfort Keepers Silicon Valley.

How Can Our Senior Loved Ones Fend off Winter Blues This Winter? - Comfort Keepers Silicon Valley

We are having quite a winter this year and it is going to persist some days more. Apart from all the discomfort it may cause to our free movement the most bothering problem that it causes is the unique sort of depression called as winter blues or more academically Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Our senior loved ones may even become more prone to this condition due to their lack of free movement and activity. Therefore, we as the people around them have to be careful and take necessary measures to keep our senior loved ones as far from SAD as possible.

Here, Comfort Keepers have compiled a list of amazing things that you can do with your senior loved ones to help them fend off winter blues.

Get as Much Sunlight as Possible

Although going outdoors most of the time is not being possible, keep the curtains and blinds open as much as possible to have access to as much sunlight as possible. Or even better whenever you get the chance have a stroll outside; even once a day would do a great job.

Have Regular Physical Exercise

One of the top commandments for getting rid of winter blues is to be active and involved. In this regard doing regular physical exercise is of primary importance. Just do simple exercises and activities and play with some light weights. This is quite enough to lift up your loved ones’ spirit.

Have Other Group Activities

Try to be creative and think of some activities like indoor games or computer games or some sort of artistically creative ventures like story telling or painting together. Such activities, if once started, is sure to make you feel good.

Practice Healthy Eating and Living

Another very important thing that we have to keep in mind that winter is also the season of cold and flu. So, our efforts to live healthy has to be strengthened during this season of the year. Apart from practicing cleanliness you also have to have a healthy diet. Ideally, our diet should contain fruit and vegetable rich well-balanced meal throughout the day along with items containing omega 3 fatty acid. 

Listen to Upbeat Music

Music can drastically affect our mood. So, listening to upbeat music when you feel dull or down will give the necessary boost to move on to further interesting activities.

Socialize

Even if you can’t get out most of the times to your friends and families in the neighborhood. You can always get engaged with them on the social media. So, encourage our senior loved ones to take up the habit of chatting and interacting through social media this season. Social activities have been repeatedly proven to create positive impacts in senior years.

Treatment Options

At some point, this condition can become a bit severe and may require serious medical attention to be treated. So, if you think that none of these activities is enough to lift up your senior loved one’s spirit then consider having other treatment options. There are many types of treatment options for SAD. Light Box and Dawn Simulator for light therapy are very helpful. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is another option. And even after that, there is specific medication to deal with SAD.

So, no more fears from the winter blues! Follow these simple tips with your senior loved ones and contact Comfort Keepers for any kind of help and support regarding senior care and well-being.

How to Turn Your New Year Resolutions into Reality - Comfort Keepers Silicon Valley

We all know right? Don’t tell me that you do not fail in turning your resolutions into reality. We all have failed.

Each year we decided to achieve new things and surpass our set milestones only in vein. Only a few of us can turn them into realities or only a few of the resolutions are fulfilled. So, exactly what makes us fail? How can we turn our resolutions into realities? We from Comfort Keepers Silicon Valley tried to find an answer!

The major reason behind our failure is the urge to give in to the pleasure principle. No matter what your resolutions are for this year, be it trying to lose weight or controlling your blood sugar and blood pressure levels, the most persistent obstacle in the way is the brain’s addiction to dopamine that gets released whenever we give in to anything that is pleasant or happy. Be it that much-resisted cupcake or the urge to sulk in the couch instead of hitting the gym.

However, the one thing that stands guard against this danger factor is your will power. Only through strengthening your willpower you can turn each and every one of your resolutions into reality.

Here are 5 things you can do to strengthen your willpower and achieve your goals:

Willpower Is Just Like a Muscle

As your muscles grow and become stronger with muscle strengthening exercises so does your willpower. So, exercise your willpower with little things like trying not cry while watching a sad movie or holding onto a grip strengthener for as long as you can twice a day or deliberately staying away from things that you feel like doing. And gradually your willpower will become stronger.

Make Small Changes

Another way of gradually having a strong will and steer towards your goals is to start with little things and continue step by step. For example, setting a massive goal of losing 10 pounds is less likely to work than fixing to spend ten minutes more in the gym or not eating that extra piece of cupcake a day. So, whatever be your resolution, break it down to step by step small bits and milestones. Besides, in this way, as you complete each step, you will get extra motivational push to continue further.

Find Your Happy Things

On the way to your goals, there will be times when you will feel down or exhausted and you will feel like giving up on your goals. But in those moments if you can manage to do the things that make you happy then after some time you will see that your mood is refreshed and your willpower is strong again. So, try to find out the things that make you happy. It can be watching a funny movie, browsing through old photographs or just going out for a walk.

Make a List of Your Achievements

Another thing that you can do to give a solid boost to your willpower is to make a list of all the great things that you have done in your life. Things that required determination and perseverance. And whenever you feel like you cannot achieve your goals go through the list. You will see that you have achieved even greater things than what you are struggling with now.

Make It Visual

Our primitive pleasure center in the brain is most responsive to visual impulses. So, write down your goals on paper and keep it in visual range. Or even better if you can keep a visual representation of your goal around you, like a picture of a slimmer you or a picture of a holiday destination, to reinforce your will of staying on your diet or saving for the vacation you are planning to have this year.

So, hopefully, from this year, you will not fall short in fulfilling your New Year resolutions anymore! Start practicing these strategies and keep growing your will power to achieve any goal that you set for yourself.