Tag: dementia care

Growing old to the point that you now need a caregiver to assist you with your everyday activities can be frustrating and uncomfortable. Some days you appreciate the helping hand with household chores like washing dishes or medical assistance like medication reminders. Sometimes, we just want our alone time. Being completely alone may not be the best thing for those that have medical restrictions such as dementia or diabetes. You do not want to put yourself at risk and have no one to take the proper precautions. So how does one get to practice self-care while still receiving assistance?

Alone time is needed for our hobbies without the feeling of being watched like singing, crochet, and our most recommended: journaling. Journaling has many benefits that can provide you with the feeling of alone time, while still being supervised for emergency situations.

Tracking Memories

Losing track of your memory is hard to cope with when you constantly hear people asking confusing questions about a previous event. It could even make your anecdotal storytelling a difficult task. No one wants to lose track of who they are.

You should try tracking any little or big moment that happens to you throughout your day. It could be a helpful resource for times when you feel like you cannot remember anything and feel trapped in the moment of the day. It can also be your little piece of joy when you do remember a significant point in your life that happened to you as a child. Jotting it down is the safest way to knowing that you will have it stored forever. You can always go back and read what you have written and start to visualize the memory.

Companionship

It is such a great feeling when you have a great relationship with your caregiver, but there are some things that as humans, we prefer to keep unknown. Keeping your thoughts to yourself is not always a healthy thing because you can start to feel alone. Trust in your journal to keep every secret, thought, embarrassing moment, or joke that you feel is too risky to share.

Exploring those thoughts can really create a companionship with another part of you that you have not visited in a long time. You can try writing in the second-person point-of-view and really feel like someone is there sharing the same laughter and feeling the same nostalgia.

Learning Opportunities

You never know that writing can be your strongest talent if you don’t try! Practicing writing every day can help you discover a lot about yourself and learn new ways to express your thoughts and ideas that you never knew were possible.

Challenge yourself to do more with your journal other than writing about your feelings. Try creating characters and giving them a story. You could potentially create a short story or even a novel. It does not have to be a promising career, and it doesn’t even have to be read by anyone else. Fiction writing is a great way to entertain yourself in an artistic approach that does not require physical exercise or helping hand of others.

Conclusion

Journaling has many benefits that could promote a better quality of life with mental exercise and mental health alleviating. Not everyone has the ability to be open about their personal life, but everyone deserves the right to be heard. By practicing memory tracking, sharing your memories with yourself in private, or even creating stories, you can make your day enjoyable and fulfilling.