The Gift Of Time To A Senior

Disclaimer: Not Medical Advice. Opinions are my own.

Hello and Happy Monday- I hope your weekend was kind to you as well as to all Dads, soon to be Dads, Granddads etc in your life. If it was the gift of solitude after a busy week or a family celebration, I am sure the TIME was meaningful for you.

Speaking of TIME,

I can speak with authority on how much you can change the everyday life of a senior when you give the gift of your “TIME”. While the word may be simple to understand, the corresponding action to support its meaning becomes ever so complex when families and people are living busy lives.

Many of us wake up, go to work, maybe workout or maybe not, drive somewhere, talk with our family, friends or pets ;-), socialize over food, or perhaps meetings. The end of the day arrives and often it requires rest and recovery. Then it’s like we hit a repeat button and do it all over again in 8-12 hours. And so on…

For older adults they understand the grind.

They have been there and done it, plus done so much more. The issue from what I can see is each and every one person in their older years requires a different recipe for optimizing quality of life, it is not cookie cutter. No two people are the same, age does not matter in this respect.

Often the time needed to understand what recipe will work for a senior is not understood. A loved one needs to spearhead this initiative as your seniors needs and abilities will change.

To be frank many older adults are lonely and have forgotten how to build their daily schedules, so the bi product is many are on their own for countless hours a day. The activity levels they once sustained in their younger years, as well as freedoms for driving or accessing different life options, is reduced.

When activity levels drop, I am seeing the following:

1. Reduced sleep hours, I am seeing more restlessness.

2. More time to think excessively- in some people it is creating enhanced anxiety from many lone time hours. Fear of being a burden on their loved ones is huge- because they know and see how busy life can be and do not want to get in the way. Especially if they have an illness or condition that restricts them. In essence they often stop adding activities for fear of rejection, being a burden, low energy from lack of sleep, other mood disturbances or other fears or perceived restrictions from mobility.

This is not an easy fix, on a large scale.

However it is a fix one person at a time. You have to care and give some time to help seniors in your life build their daily and weekly plans (their way) We all need something to look forward to, it keeps our mind engaged.

Tips:

1. Engage friends and family to do monthly or weekly visits, they do not need to be long. Having something to look forward to is exceptional mood booster.

2. If they like to tell stories - during a visit take notes and then write them a story to read. You have gifted them your one on one time and then personal interest time.

3. If they are not social, maybe it’s a favorite movie or book.

4. As I sit here, my friend in her late 80’s loves music. We had a bit of an anxiety hour, so I introduce music from 70s and 80s and it makes her happy. She sings, Eric Clapton “Look Wonderful Tonight” gets rave reviews.

I will leave it there for now. Taking the time to help your much loved seniors build out their weeks with things they truly love doing will pay dividends in their quality of life and yours. Do not leave it to others, taking the lead to help organize events and make “asks” from their network, it is game changing. You’ll hit a home run in their life.

Have an amazing week,

Danielle Pointon

Live Blue Consulting

My Happy Place