Looking after an elderly relative in Lockdown

Mental Health - Mindfulness Meditation

Mindful meditation is one way of combating feelings of depression and anxiety and can be practiced by anyone at any age.

Mindful meditation has many potential physical and psychological benefits for older adults, including heightened focus, reduced stress levels, the induction of a sense of calm and improved sleep patterns. Even if you have mobility issues, you can practice mindful meditation anytime, anywhere.

Such meditation focuses on the ‘moment’ and pays deliberate attention to the activity that you are engaged in. Enhanced focus on the present, so the theory goes, equates to significantly less focus on the past or the future and, consequently, any negative thoughts associated with either.

Actively putting time aside to practice meditation serves to impose some structure on one’s day and cues the body for ‘relaxation.’ Engaging in mindful meditation may take some practice but, fortunately, there is no shortage of activities that qualify as ‘mindful.’

Gentle Activity

By way of encouraging elderly relatives to spend twenty minutes each day either sitting or walking in their garden or local park is incredibly beneficial for all concerned.

A decision to swap a TV news programme for a natural history or ‘country life’ documentary might also improve a person’s mindset, as might a commitment to bring nature indoors through the introduction of house plants. Such changes of routine might well spark the onset of a new interest.

Breathing Exercises

Breathing exercises can be undertaken while sitting in a chair. Close your eyes and concentrate on inhaling and exhaling, the focus being on each and every relaxed breath. Meditative breathing in this way helps us to rebalance our emotions and experience a sense of calm.

Gentle movement in the form of seated stretches can help elderly relatives feel a sense of ‘connect’ to their body and assist in dealing with ongoing physical changes.

For information on mindfulness visit

www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/health-wellbeing/mind-body/mindfulness/

Staying in Touch - Offering Tech Support

We all struggle with technology at times but this is disproportionately the case with regard to the elderly, often unable, in this context, to keep up with their grandchildren. Assisting the older generation in the management of modern technology can prove immensely rewarding, particularly in the light of the current Covid-19 restrictions.

Should you have elderly relatives that are ‘shielding’ or merely feeling isolated during Lockdown, there is much that can be done to enhance their lives. You may be able to teach such relatives how to place an online grocery order with a supermarket, order prescriptions via their GP’s website, or simply encourage them to take advantage of apps such as Zoom to stay in touch with family and friends.