Seminar - Whole-Person-Centered Wellness For Elders: Integrating the mind, body and spirit for the betterment of the quality of life of our elders and their caregivers.

Enchanted Elders: The Leonardo Da Vinci Of Our Own Lives

Nurturing Emotional Wellness: Portrait of Myself

Are We Listening?

Intergenerational Hand Massage and Herbal Tea Party

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Whole-Person-Centered Wellness Seminar For Elders Location: Southside Senior Center, Spokane, WA.

How to start your own wellness program, and how to create your own Journal For A Better Life.

Promoting independence is an important component of whole-person living. This seminar helps facilitate a more inclusive, fun and pro-active role in our own wellness and healing process. What is wellness? What is wholistic living? Which are the components of whole-person living? How can every person nurtures their emotional, physical, intellectual wellness and other components of whole-person living?

Person-centered approach is when the betterment of all aspects of wellness of the person is the focus, therefore, the person is included as the plan of care is developed (meaningful partnerships among health care professionals and elders co-creating a better health.) There is a greater freedom in all partnerships toward a better quality of life.

Overview of Wellness and Wholistic Living - January 30th

Upcoming three-session wellness seminar...

How To Nurture Wellness Of The Physical Body - February 13th

How To Nurture Wellness Of The Mind - February 20th

How To Nurture Spiritual Wellness - February 27th

Elders and their caregivers are invited to attend this meaningful program.

Time: 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. - Registration required.
Southside Senior Center - Please call 509-535-0803

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Enchanted Elders: The Leonardo Da Vinci Of Our Own Lives

Conversation With Remarkable Elders ...
About Creativity, Aging and Leonardo da Vinci

Beyond right or wrong... we are limited only
by the boundaries of our imagination." Virginia 100 years old.



"Finger-painting is so much FUN. Here is... my green forest
and the yellow is light coming through the fields."
"Creativity is also a way of see things."
Anne 89 years old

Benefits of Creative Arts Programs For Elders

Draw comparisons and analogies that ordinarily do not go together, help put things in a new context, help you see them in a completely fresh way.

Pat: Charles Darwin put together facts that for the most part had already been known to other scientists of his day. His original contribution was to organize and interpret them in a way that lent support to his theory of evolution.

Mary "I'm eighty nine, I know too many people who just sit around waiting for the undertaker. I think people who are going to retire could get involved in something that's going to INVEST their time, their effort, and their thought."

Rita: "I'm eighty four, I keep going and I don't have time to think about my small troubles. I'm having a ball. Once you've lost that, I think you may as well pack it in. The main thing is just don't grow up!"

Pat: "I think people are afraid to express new ideas because they do not trust one another, to a place where it's safe to propose new ideas."

Dan: I am sixty nine. "I am not afraid of being seen as wrong, of making a mistake, of being busted, maybe because I am an elder. But it was not always like that. Those with the temerity to speak truth to power usually suffer for it. There is a little tolerance for insubordination or public criticism."

Kathy: "Do you think that creativity requires community inspiration?

Virginia: "It requires encouragement of more open and safer expression from one another. Something like, the spirit of caring"

Kathy: Imagine a community without hierarchy. A community where power is dispersed instead of focused at the top. A community where everyone shares responsibility and care for one another. Do you think this will inspire creativity?

Virginia: "Yes, everyone 'playing to win'. Like being the Leonardo da Vinci of our own life or 'unlimited possibilities' or something like that..."

Mary: "Every human being is a Leonardo da Vinci. Creativity is an original not a copy."

Comment: Chuck Jones, the animator who fathered Wile E. Coyote (one of the stars of the television series), says that in order for him to draw a coyote "you have to have a coyote inside of you. And you have to get it out. Animation means to invoke life and how do you invoke life?... You have to find it within yourself."

FOR CREATIVITY TO HAPPEN, SOMETHING WITHIN US
MUST BE BROUGHT TO LIFE.... What do you think?

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Everyone has an image or portrait of themselves in their mind, unconsciously. An idea of themselves as a person based on past experiences, relationships, attitude of other people toward us and how the environment and life circumstances have influenced us. Our self-esteem depends on our own value or estimation of all these events.

Self-esteem refers to an individual's sense of value or worth, or the extent to which a person values, approves of, appreciates, likes, supports and relates to. The word 'esteem' comes from a Latin word which means 'to estimate'. So, self-esteem is how you estimate yourself. Another important component of our own image or portrait is self-efficacy. Self-efficacy refers to an individual's sense of competence or ability in general or in particular domains, self-assessments of ability, and expectations about the environment and the 'outside world'. A person who believes in being able to cause an event can conduct a more active and self-determined life course. This "can do" cognition mirrors a sense of control over one’s environment. It reflects the belief of being able to control challenging environmental demands by means of taking adaptive action.

Self-esteem and self-efficacy are important components of our EMOTIONAL WELLNESS and overall health. Many dependencies or addictions have been related to ways to hurt, self-sabotage or damage our health, wellness and quality of life due to "unconscious self-esteem values". It is very important to stay in touch with our feelings because they are the reflection of our thoughts. Depression, fear, anxiety, stress, social isolation, etc., are symptoms of our disharmonious emotional wellness.

Facilitating therapeutic interventions to nurture emotional wellness.

It is helpful to promote and facilitate opportunities to nurture self-esteem and self-efficacy for our elders and everyone in our community. The well-established relationship between self-esteem and psychological well-being is an important factor in the betterment of our health.

A measure of psychic health is a habit to search positive sides in everything. Emerson R.

Project: Create Your Own Self-Portrait Collage. Titled: I am...

Invite all elders in your community and their families to create their own self-portrait collages using an 8.5" x 11" or 11" x 17" craft paper.

Steps:

1. Provide to everyone an overview of the purpose of this activity which is to create a self-portrait collage. This activity helps facilitate a conscious vision of our unconscious image of ourselves.
   
2. Pick out a piece of craft paper in your favorite color.
3. Use fabric scraps, magazine clippings, photos, drawings, etc... to create a composition that communicates feelings, experiences, skills, accomplishments, dreams and more about the person that is making the self-portrait collage.
4. Glue items, clippings and materials to the page. Allow each person to express themselves using their own creativity and self-image and values.
5. Use as many pages as necessary to create a self-portrait.
   
6. Encourage elders to incorporate significant people, songs, films... that have nurtured or made a difference in their lives.
7. After completion of this project, have a group conversation about self-perceived happiness, self-esteem, wellness and life satisfaction... and listen to what the person shares with everyone and how each individual portrait themselves in the art project.
   
8. Recommended time-frame for this activity: 1 hour and 30 min.
   
   
   
   
   example of a self-portrait
   
   
9. Help create awareness about the importance of self-esteem, psychological and emotional wellness to nurture better health. Have a brainstorming session with elders and their caregivers about how things can get better.
   
   - Invite everyone to list 50 things they like about themselves. If the person is lacking self-esteem, this exercise may take more time, but encourage perseverance and completion of the task. This can be the beginning of healing and a better quality of life.
   
   
10. After completion of individual self-portraits, collect them all to compose a Family and Friends Photo Album. This helps to nurture a sense of community integration and social support network.
    
    Remember...
    
    It takes a community to better and build a community!
    
    
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    Are we listening to better provide health care services? ...listening with our ears ...listening with our eyes ...listening with our mind ...listening with our intuition ...listening without judgment ...listening with our soul ...listening with our heart?

    
    

Intergenerational Hand Massage and Herbal Tea Party

February, a month to nurture love, meaningful relationships, happiness and wellness. Tune in this month to intergenerational relationships; grandparents and children or young adults.

Calming music, hand massage, herbal teas and meaningful social relations among elders and children is all we need to nurture wellness (meaningful social relations, creativity, sensory stimulation, rest and relaxation).

Some benefits for elders: Lessened depression due to sense of self-worth. Create opportunities to reminisce, restore and stimulate memories, keeping brain cells healthy and functioning better. Increase blood circulation and tactile stimulation (through receptors in our skin). Stimulates the olfactory system (through receptors in our nose). Nurtures emotional wellness.

Some benefits for children or young adults: Decreased generation gap. Create opportunities to share love, gratitude and kindness. Nurtures morale and life satisfaction. Cost effective intergenerational community service. Nurtures personal development and vocational wellness.

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Peace be with you!


Kathy J. Ward, MA, CTRS, ADC, CGP, CALA
Universal Peace Ambassador,
Cercle Universel des Ambassadeurs de la Paix - Geneva Switzerland
President of WEL, World Elder Land
President of ERT, Elder Recreation Therapy
Therapeutic Recreation Consultant
National Assisted Living Administrator Certified
Board Member, Activities, Adaptation and Aging Journal
Author
National Alzheimer's Association Speakers Bureau
Love Ambassador - Florida, USA
Member of the World Poet Society - Greece
Ambassador of Happiness For Elders - Connecticut, USA
Cell:      (240) 393-5456
E-mail:    connection@KathyJWard.com