Independent LivingDreaming Big for 2017 at Brightmore Independent Living!
January 6, 2017
Madeline Woodard, Wellness Director at Brightmore, presented to the residents of the retirement community the first of many wellness presentations for the year called “Not Your Standard New Year’s Resolutions.” When we all think of our New Year’s Resolutions, the most popular always seem to be Exercise More, Drink More Water, and Eat Healthier Meals. In this presentation, Madeline presented ideas that are more “outside the box” that cover all 7 of the components of the Wellness Wheel which include: Emotional, Intellectual, Physical, Social, Environmental, Financial and Spiritual. Some of the new ideas she spoke on and encouraged the residents to add into their schedule this year were: Rekindling an old friendship or starting a new one by sending a letter to them; Setting up a social media account to keep in contact with friends and family; Practicing random acts of kindness to new residents and friends to make them feel at home in a new community; Pampering yourself more with long walks, manicures, pedicures, foot baths, and taking time out of your day just for “you” to meditate or journal which helps decrease loneliness and depression; Take on a new hobby like writing or create a bucket list of things you would like to accomplish in the near future. These are all wonderful ideas to kick-start the New Year and start thinking of something new that is outside of your normal daily routine! Of course, Madeline still stressed the importance of drinking plenty of water, eating healthier and exercising every day, and that will easily become a habit since it’s a part of our Wellness Program here at Brightmore! At the end, residents added there personal resolutions to the program, bucket list items they have checked off and others they still want to accomplish and we were excited when residents Pete and Bea Stewart shared a life legacy book they published for their family several years back to give us all hope that it is NEVER TOO LATE to accomplish a dream! “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”-C.S. Lewis