Sometimes you have to stop, stop what you are doing and listen. What is it that you can hear around you in your environment. What are the beliefs that you hold about your situation or circumstances? Check out the video below for some additional insights.
As I listen to the sounds in my enviroment I think about what I should be grateful for, and the things that I constantly take for granted. When I listen to the sounds one of my favorite times of year is when the spring is underway and the birds seem to be singing extra loud and it is lovely.
I also like seeing the buds, those first flowers emerging from the ground or on the trees - new life emerging with the promise of fruit. It is in those simple moments that clarity can be found. We stop all the chatter and take stock of who we are and what we feel.
As the dementia developed in my mother I questioned the old ways of doing things that you still see in some care homes today where people are sat in a circle in chairs they can't get out of. I am not saying all care homes, there has been a lot of changes over the years. But people are generally of the opinion that when a person is living with dementia they become like a cabbage! (and I have heard a person talk about their own mother in this way) I also heard a massage therapist while she was massaging a residents foot that it didn't really help them because they couldn't respond. I was flabbergasted on both occasions and told both parties about all the research done that would contradict their claims. There is still a lot of stigma associated with the disease and people tend to keep it hushed behind closed doors.
Mum used to love art and still appreciates the effects of colour
What if you were suddenly unable to do anything for yourself speak, or move unaided, how would you want to be treated? When you put the shoe on the other foot and imagine what what you have the ability to do now, to how you would feel if people treated you like you didn't exist because of their limited view of the benefits that you get from the interaction you might look differently.
We have to change our perspectives to many things, and shine some new light on old beliefs and looking with a set of new eyes. The quote that says 'you can't do what you have always done and expect to get different results', that would be madness - wouldn't it, but we sometimes act as if it were so.
The long and the short of it is this is not a rehearsal, we don't get a retake or do-over of our time wasted, so learn to appreciate those things that you have been taking for granted. Look at how far you have come, celebrate those achievements and where you currently are at the moment, change what you can change as you step into what tomorrow will bring you.
There are a range of creative activities that you can also do whether you are caring for someone or not that help you express what you are going through.Check out some of my art videos and podcasts to help you spend more creative time, and remember to take some time out for you!
Check out this weeks Podcast