Tips For Caregivers: How Mindfulness Can Help Your Aging Parent

Everyone is looking for a little more calm in their life, but what if this calm could be life changing? For your aging parents, this might be the case. If you are the caregiver of an elderly loved one, then you should know that some experts believe mindfulness could be the key to a more fulfilling life. By encouraging your parent to incorporate mindful practices into their life, you may give them the gift of calm and energy.

What is mindfulness?

Based on Buddhist meditation practices, mindfulness is the art of being completely present in the moment. This practice includes controlled breathing and sharpened attention. While meditation practices can take years to fully master, mindfulness can involve simply sitting and focusing on breath for one to five minutes.

"The goal of mindfulness is to make life itself a meditation and to become mindful and in control in every waking moment, even in difficult or boring times -- like washing the dishes, changing the cat litter, or commuting in a particularly congested rush hour," Jeff Anderson writes in A Place For Mom.

This practice is thought to ease the effects of anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and other illnesses. By introducing this practice into their daily life, your parent can begin to feel more in control of their lives.

How can mindfulness help my aging parent?

The following are just some of the ways that your elderly relative may benefit from implementing mindfulness practices into their daily lives.

Teaching Children Mindfulness

I recently watched a show on Netflix called Inn Saei: The Power Of Intuition. I've added their trailer below.

A particular segment on mindfulness in the classroom really resonated with me. I sat watching this show in awe at the articulate conversations the young children were having about their brains, the different parts of their brains and what each part did. These were young children!

These children not only described the different parts of their own brains but they also could explain how the different parts affected their behaviors.

I bow to the teachers and parents who are making mindfulness training part of their curriculum. 

Watching one child in particular on this show was mesmerizing. He could fully articulate how he could take the mindfulness skills he learned in school and apply them at home. One example is how he chose to handle a situation between him and his brother. On one of his birthdays his brother broke some of his gifts. He thought about the reaction he would take. He asked his brother to leave the room to give himself time to cool off and choose his course of action. 

The Necessity of a Meditation Practice for the Parents of Children with Challenges or Special Needs.

I am the mother of a child with special needs. My young teenage daughter was born with pachygyria, which basically means her brain decided to be structurally different from the norm. In the old days she probably would have been labeled "retarded" (what a word, huh?!) and in a sense, that is what her brain did – it didn't advance fully.

My day-to-day equates to extensive learning delays and intense mood swings carried off by a normal looking kid. So, as I write to you... know that I GET IT. Having a child on a different path creates challenges and ups and downs like you would never believe. Right?! Not just for that child but also for you as a parent, or if you are a sibling, grandparent, educator, medical professional, etc.