MINDFUL CARING

Is Mindful Caring right for you?

At Mindful Caring, we offer services that may be difficult for you to carry out as you age, recover from an illness or live with a disability.
Our hardworking staff is respectful, experienced, and dedicated to providing you with support to meet your care needs when you need it, most.

Those who wish to join our caregiving team go through:

• Intensive interview process

• Background Screening

• Comprehensive reference checks

• Extensive Training

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is being in the present by noticing one’s thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad. Mindfulness encompasses two key ingredients, awareness, and acceptance. Awareness is the knowledge and ability to focus attention on one’s feelings and experiences, as the experience of the present moment. Acceptance is the ability to observe and accept, rather than judge or avoid our thoughts.

Mindful Caring

Mindfulness refers to a popular form of meditation that can help us maintain a healthy physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Its main purpose is to allow a relaxed state of mind and increase your awareness of your present thoughts, emotions, and feelings.

Oftentimes, we spend time planning, problem-solving, daydreaming, or thinking negative or random thoughts that can be draining. These behaviors and thoughts can make you more likely to experience stress, anxiety, isolation, and symptoms of depression. The practice of mindfulness can help you direct your attention away from this kind of thinking and engage with the world around you. Our caregivers will encourage you to cultivate daily awareness in the present moment through nonjudgmental observations of thought, feeling and sensation.

Mindful Breathing: A way to build resilience to stress, anxiety, and anger.

How to Do It - 5 minutes daily

The most basic way to do mindful breathing is to focus your attention on your breath, the inhale and exhale. You can do this while standing, but ideally, you will be sitting or even lying in a comfortable position. Your eyes may be open or closed, or you can maintain a soft gaze, with your eyes partially closed but not focusing on anything. It may help to set aside time for this practice, but it can also help to incorporate it when you’re feeling particularly stressed or anxious.

• Inhale through your nostrils

• Hold your breath

• Exhale

Observe each breath, it may help to focus on the rise and fall of your chest. At times, your mind may wander. That is OK. Gently try to bring your attention back to your breath.

Mindfulness has many benefits and practicing it is a prescription for health and wellness. You can now find meditations and information on any number of ways to use mindfulness topics—from mindful walking to mindful eating.

But what about mindful aging? Studies have shown benefits in many areas around aging including cognitive, physical, and emotional gains. It promotes aging with greater ease and joy.

What is Mindful Aging?

Mindful aging is a practice that helps us to embrace the changes that are an inevitable part of growing old while also being active and engaged in our lives. Through the practice of mindfulness, it is possible to shift to a new mindset around aging that allow more passion, purpose, creativity, and joy.

Cognitive Benefits of Mindful Aging

When anyone grows older, many may likely experience changes in cognitive areas including planning, attention, multi-tasking, processing speed, and various areas of memory. Mindfulness involves training the mind to focus on a singular area for an extended period.

This type of attention in practicing mindfulness in older adults can have positive effects on:

• general cognition

• executive function

• attention

• processing speed

• memory

Physiological Benefits of Mindful Aging

Aging brings about many physical changes to our bodies. Decreased muscle mass and loss of collagen brings changes to our physical appearance while aging also makes us more susceptible to many chronic health conditions.

Studies have shown that mindfulness can positively influence many physiological factors associated with aging. These benefits include a strengthened immune system, improved sleep, lowered blood pressure, and improve chronic pain.

Emotional Benefits of Mindful Aging

Aging begins the day we are born. Mindfulness can be a wonderful tool to help us navigate the various stages of aging and changes at any point in our lives. Through mindfulness practices, one can learn valuable tools to help us with aging:

• Acceptance – Meditation allows us to experience the impermanence of our thoughts, sensations, and emotions. In aging we bring this acceptance to the changing nature of our bodies, roles, environments, and relationships.

• Resiliency – Mindfulness helps to regulate emotions and relieve stress and to notice and embrace various emotional states such as sadness or loneliness that can accompany aging.

• Compassion – Practicing mindfulness as we get older can help to develop compassion for ourselves and widen our compassion for others as we see the interconnectedness of all living things.

• Awareness – An increased awareness of the present moment to enjoy what matters most.