For us here in Lowenhill Home Care Services, exercising your creativity is a healthy form of self-expression. It gives people the chance to connect with their innermost joys and anxieties. As such, there is a variety of health-related settings like hospice agencies, dementia care communities, and others that uses art therapy activities for their patients.

While some do not consider themselves to be particularly artistic, researchers say it is the process of creating that promotes better health and mentality, not the result. Just by engaging in the simplest creative activities, you can improve both your physical and mental well-being.

Here are a few benefits you can get when you engage in artistic endeavors:

1. Increased happiness
2. Decreased depression
3. Reduced anxiety
4. Strengthened immune system

Older adults can tap into creative activities through a variety of ways, such as moving, performing, creating art, writing, inventing, cooking, or just by trying something new. By encouraging your senior loved ones to pursue these activities, you’ll help them not only with maintaining their mental flexibility, but also with handling new challenges, maximizing their various social relationships, and finding their inner spark.

Pursuing creativity later in life may initially feel daunting for seniors. However, their mental health is imperative for their overall well-being. Besides, the later stages of life often make creative self-expression a fulfilling prospect that can be found in many activities.

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Taking care of a loved one diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or some other mental disorder can be emotionally and physically draining. Oftentimes, you feel like days are dragging along, and even if you are very dedicated to your sick family member, you still cannot avoid feeling stressed and burnt out. Feeling grateful might be a challenging task to achieve.

Living with gratitude doesn’t mean that you should ignore or deny when things are tough. At Lowenhill Home Care Services, we believe that being positive and having a hopeful outlook is just a way to remind yourself that there are some things left to appreciate in life, even during the darkest of days.

Keeping a Gratitude Journal

Many people find that writing a gratitude journal is an effective way to change their perspective, allowing them to focus on even the smallest thing that there is to be grateful for. After it becomes a habit, you begin to find more and more reasons to be grateful.

So, how should you start?

Consider what format will work best for you. Would you like to write your thoughts down on paper or on an app that you can download on your phone? It’s important for you to set up a system you are comfortable with so that it won’t be hard for you to follow through later.

Once you’re down with that, you can start writing!

Here are a couple of prompts:

1. Did something make you smile today?
2. Did you have a nice conversation with a friend?
3. Is there an activity or event that you are looking forward to attending?

When you train your mind to focus more on the positive things in your life, it becomes a lot easier to manage the more difficult days. Let’s all feel grateful this Valentine’s Day!

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• 2022: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
• 2021: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
• 2020: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
• 2019: Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
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