Yoga Poses Seniors Can Easily Do

As we grow older, one of the most important strategies to maintain good health is to incorporate physical activities into our daily routines. An active lifestyle not only enhances physical health, but also delivers several mental health benefits. With a consistent exercise routine, your loved one can thrive living at a senior housing facility in Everett, Washington. You can expect your loved one to feel more energetic, as well as address the typical aches and pains that develop due to aging.

Yoga represents one of the most effective and popular types of exercise for seniors. The key to getting the most out of a yoga exercise routine involves learning the yoga poses seniors can easily do.

Benefits of Yoga for Seniors

Yoga delivers several benefits that make it one of the most popular exercise routines for seniors.

The physical benefits of yoga exercises start with strengthening bones and muscles, both of which deteriorate as we age. Yoga for seniors can prevent the development of painful osteoarthritis, as well as enhance heart health. A regular yoga exercise regimen often leads to better balance and coordination, which many seniors struggle with as they grow older. Maintaining strong mobility is one of the most important factors in maintaining an independent lifestyle.

Yoga also delivers other benefits, which include reducing stress and anxiety. Moving into a senior housing facility can trigger acute stress. Lower stress improves your loved one’s heart rate and blood pressure. Because of the mental relaxation techniques implemented with yoga exercises, your loved one should experience improved sleeping patterns.

Easy Yoga Poses for Seniors

Although yoga delivers many benefits for seniors, not every yoga pose is the right one for assisted living facility residents. Three yoga poses represent the three easiest exercises for seniors. The yoga instructors at MorningStar at Silver Lake help residents optimize the benefits of the following three easy yoga poses.

Simple Reclining Twist

The simple reclining twist exercise is considered the most effective restorative yoga pose. This pose requires participants to hold postures passively to target connective bones and tissues, which allows the body to discover its natural alignment. The simple reclining twist maintains fluid joints to allow seniors to move around with greater ease. Many yoga instructors recommend the simple reclining twist pose before bedtime because it calms down an active nervous system.

Relaxation Pose

Yoga is not just a physically beneficial exercise. Several yoga techniques incorporate controlled breathing exercises to relax both the mind and body. Instructors also include breathing exercises at the end of a yoga session during “savasana,” which refers to a deep relaxation technique. During savasana, participants integrate slow breathing to meditate for several minutes. This meditative pose is especially helpful for enhancing the mental health of seniors.

Side Warrior Pose

The side warrior pose represents a yoga exercise that concentrates on strengthening the bones and muscles in the lower body such as the quadriceps and gluteus maximus. Seniors that struggle with balance particularly benefit from this yoga pose, which does not place much strain on the body. The key to completing this pose is to maintain a narrow stance and incorporate deep breathing into the exercise.

Participate in Yoga Classes at MorningStar at Silver Lake

Our assisted living facility in Everett, WA schedules yoga classes that teach poses for seniors of all types of skill sets. Learn more about the yoga program at MorningStar at Silver Lake, as well as the rest of our activities, by scheduling a tour of our senior housing facility.

Looking for Senior Housing in Everett, WA

More than 800,000 seniors in the United States live in an assisted living community. If a loved one has reached retirement age, you might one day need to find senior housing in Everett, Washington. On the other hand, if you are currently looking for senior housing in Everett, WA, you should consider several factors to make the right decision for a loved one.

Here are a few tips to help you conduct helpful research for finding the right assisted living facility in Everett.

Location, Location, Location

Location matters because you want to spend time with your senior loved one. Proximity is an important issue, as well as how easy it is to travel to and from your home to make frequent visits. Seattle area traffic can quickly turn into a congested mess, especially during the fall and winter when Pacific Ocean storms inundate the metro region with rain. If your loved one develops a healthcare issue, you want to be close by to provide immediate emotional support.

Different Types of Care

The best senior housing facilities in Everett do not offer a cookie-cutter approach to providing care. Although some residents do not require comprehensive care, they still might need some type of assistance with a few chores or for receiving certain types of medical care. MorningStar at Silver Lake offers three types of lifestyle options: independent living, assisted living, and memory care. Many of our residents start in the independent living program, with the option to receive assisted living and eventually memory care services down the road.

Activities and Amenities

Numerous studies have concluded that participating in an active lifestyle represents an effective strategy to delay or avoid the onset of memory issues. An active lifestyle also can help a senior become more independent, which means less reliance on assisted living services. At our Silver Lake senior housing facility in Everett, we offer a wide variety of amenities such as access to computers and a swimming pool to keep our residents active. MorningStar at Silver Lake also schedules numerous social and cultural events throughout every month, including trips to venues located in the greater Seattle area.

Disposition of Staff Members

Caregivers work highly stressful jobs. The toll of providing around-the-clock care can burden caregivers enough to change their attitudes toward their jobs. When you visit an assisted living facility, one of the most important items on your to-do list involves watching the caregivers interact with residents. You want a facility where caregivers display cheerful and helpful attitudes. In addition, the facility where your loved one calls a new home should have a low caregiver-to-resident ratio, which indicates the staff is under less pressure to deliver senior care services.

Safety and Security

We tend to sustain more injuries as we grow older, which means the senior housing facility in Everett where your loved one lives should implement proven safety and security strategies. Video monitoring of every square inch of a property ensures caregivers promptly detect any issues. Features such as a room alert system give you peace of mind knowing your loved one has a way to alert caregivers whenever an issue arises. The security system should not only prevent access to outside trespassers, but also keep every wing of a facility secure 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

Learn more about our highly rated senior housing facility in Everett, Washington by connecting with one of our staff members.

MINIMALIST ROOM IDEAS FOR SENIORS

Getting ready for a senior loved one to make the transition from a home to an assisted living environment requires considerable planning. Perhaps the most complex step of the planning process involves moving day. What should your loved one take to the assisted living facility in Everett, Washington, and what should your loved one leave behind? The answer is to implement a strategy that leverages minimalist room ideas for seniors.
Senior housing facilitiesoffer spacious rooms for residents, but the rooms typically do not permit a loved one to bring everything he or she owns into the new home environment. This means your loved one needs to maximize the limited space provided for an assisted living room.

Let’s see how to achieve doing more with less.

Start with the Bed

The bed for your loved one moving to an assisted living facility in Everett is the largest item placed in the room. Choosing a low-platform bed might make the room look contemporary, but an elevated bed maximizes space by creating more of it to store items such as bedding and apparel. A height of around two feet should allow your loved one to touch feet to the floor while in a sitting position on the bed. Two feet also provide enough room to store items under a bed.

Multipurpose Furniture

Furniture that serves more than one purpose helps save space in an assisted living room. One of the best examples of multipurpose furniture is the ottoman, which can double as a seat and a place to store items such as linens and reading materials. An ottoman also can serve a third purpose by acting as a footstool for someone sitting on a chair or sofa. A dresser with a long and wide surface can double as a place to store clothes, as well as furniture that provides plenty of room to display artifacts.

Hang Plants

Plants deliver many benefits as part of the decor of any style of home. They enhance the decor of a room, which helps boost mood and make other items in the room more visually appealing. Although adding plants in asenior housing room in Everettis a good idea, you should hang plants instead of letting them take up valuable space on the floor and or on top of other pieces of furniture. The key is to hang plants as close as possible to windows that usher in sunlight.

Wall-Mounted Television

As we grow older, we tend to spend more time in front of a television watching our favorite shows and movies. Depending on the guidelines established by a senior housing facility in

Everett, WA, you might be able to wall-mount a television to reduce the amount of space taken up in a room. Installing a wall-mounted room not only saves space, but also allows your loved one to watch television from a larger screen. Another reason to wall-mount a television is it no longer represents a tripping hazard for your senior loved one.

A wall-mounted television saves space, improves the viewing experience, and bolsters the safety of an assisted living room.

Receive More Assisted Living Tips from MorningStar at Silver Lake MorningStar senior housing facilitieshave earned the reputation for providing compassionate care for seniors that live in independent, assisted, and memory care living environments. Schedule a tour to learn more about how to make the transition for a loved one to an assisted living facility in Everett.

5 Skills Seniors Can Learn

They say you cannot teach old dogs new tricks. Well, that might apply to a certain species of canines, but as adults get older, they should welcome learning new skills with the same eager anticipation that they display when the first Social Security check arrives in the mail.

Reaching a certain age does not mean you should stop learning new skills. In fact, an assisted living facility in Everett is the ideal place for you to pick up a wide variety of new tricks.

Learn How to Play an Instrument

Whether it is an instrument you played in high school or one that has captured your imagination now, learning how to play an instrument can become a full-time hobby for seniors. The learning process keeps your brain engaged, while playing the instrument unleashes your creative side. Research indicates that playing a musical instrument can increase the heart rate and blood flow, both of which enhance your health.

You can find tutorials online that teach how to play your favorite musical instrument or take the more formal approach by receiving lessons from a seasoned professional.

Speak a New Language

Another skill that does a great job of engaging the brain involves learning to speak a new language. Research demonstrates adults who learn to speak a new language score higher on certain types of IQ tests. You can enroll in a continuing education class or teach yourself by completing a self-paced online tutorial. Spanish is the most popular second language taught in the United States, but you should learn a new language that provides you with the most joy of learning.

Dog Training

One of the many advantages of our senior housing facility in Everett, Washington is our wildly popular pet-friendly policy. Researchers have established a link between taking care of a pet and an older adult’s improved mental health. Countless news stories discuss how certain dog breeds visit assisted living facilities. If you decide to live with the right dog breed, you can develop dog training skills, from teaching your dog how to sit and wait patiently for treats to developing more elaborate skills such as your dog grabbing its leash when the time comes for a walk.

Computer Skills

Seniors should embrace and not run away from digital technology. Learning how to use editing tools such as Adobe Photoshop can help you upload enhanced photographs to your Facebook page. If you want to dive deeper into the world of technology, learning how to write web code is a valued skill that you can leverage to earn part-time income. Other computer-related skills to consider developing include creating Internet applications.

Discover the Benefits of Yoga

Yoga improves your strength, flexibility, and coordination in ways you thought were not possible after reaching the start of your golden years. Many seniors at assisted living facilities avoid yoga because they think it is just for younger people. However, yoga is the perfect activity for older adults not just because of the physical benefits, but also the mental health benefits of reducing stress and anxiety levels. You can enroll in an in-person class or learn yoga techniques by following the instructions of a licensed instructor online.

MorningStar at Silver Lake has earned the reputation for delivering the highest quality services and amenities of any senior living facility in Everett, Washington. If you are searching for the highest-rated assisted living facility in Everett, we encourage you to connect with us to learn more about what we have to offer.

HOW TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR SENIOR’S MEDICATION

It can be a problem for anyone, but it is an especially common problem for our senior loved ones. We are talking about taking the right medications, in the correct doses, and at the right times.

Forgetting to take a certain medication, or worse, taking too much of a medication, can cause serious health consequences. At the MorningStar assisted living facility in Everett, Washington, our caregivers receive training on how to help seniors follow their prescription medication regimens. However, you can do your part to learn how to keep track of your senior’s medication.

Take Medications with Meals

​Perhaps the most effective strategy to ensure your senior loved one takes prescribed medications involves linking the taking of meds with mealtimes. Once your senior loved one gets into the routine of taking the right meds with the right meal, you might be able to approach medication monitoring with less vigilance.

Create a Schedule

The caregivers at a senior housing facility help guests stay current with their medications by following a detailed schedule. You can do the same for your senior loved one by creating a schedule that remains the same until your loved one’s physician changes the schedule. Keeping track of multiple meds can cause confusion. Posting a schedule in a common area like the kitchen can help your senior loved one remain on track.

Store Meds in an Organizer

A simple plastic box with several compartments represents an effective way to organize your senior loved one’s prescription medications. The bonus of using an organizer is you eliminate the frustration experienced by your loved one while trying to open a medication bottle. If you decide to use an organizer, make sure to label each medication compartment with the type of drug and the dose to take, as well as what day and time to take the medication.

Send Notifications

Leveraging the power of technology can help your senior loved one remain on the right schedule for taking prescription medications. You can set an alarm on a watch and/or establish a communication system on a Smartphone that automatically sends notifications when it is time to take certain drugs. Another way to notify your senior loved one is to set an alarm on a standard clock. 

Monitor Your Loved One’s Pill Inventory

Every prescription medication issued comes with a label that presents helpful information, such as how many pills are part of each bottle. Knowing how many pills are in each prescription medication bottle helps you discover when your senior loved one has missed one or more doses or has taken too many pills.

Consider Hiring a Certified Caregiver

Even the most thoroughly vetted medication monitoring systems can reveal one or more flaws. Because of the negative health consequences of missing doses and/or taking too many pills, hiring a professional caregiver offers you the peace of mind you deserve that your senior loved one is following the correct medication schedule.

At the MorningStar at Silver Lake, our professional caregivers receive training on how to keep track of our guests’ medications. Learn more about our highly-rated senior housing facility in Everett, Washington by submitting the short online form.

ACTIVITIES FOR SENIORS WITH THEIR GRANDCHILDREN

It might be the best example of the classic good cop, bad cop routine.

We are talking about the relationship many children have with their parents and grandparents. Although mom says no to giving her child access to the cookie jar, grandma has no problem baking two dozen cookies from scratch as a delicious snack before dinner time. When Dad lays down the law when it comes to watching television, Grandpa grants an unlimited amount of time for a grandchild or two to watch Saturday cartoons.

The classic good cop, bad cop relationship grandchildren have with their parents and grandparents has changed somewhat over the past generation. Grandparents have assumed more responsibility than ever in the raising of their kids’ offspring, which means being much more than weekend destinations for their grandchildren. Even grandparents living in assisted living facilities have assumed more of a role in raising their grandchildren.

What does all of this mean? It means grandparents living in a senior housing facility in Everett, Washington need to know about the many activities seniors can do with their grandchildren.

Play Games

No, we do not mean grabbing a video game console and saddling up to the television for hours of video arcade fun. Although there exists a well-defined generation gap when it comes to playing video games, most grandchildren remain highly receptive to playing more traditional games with their grandparents.

A card game such as Crazy Eights can melt away an entire afternoon of time to bring grandkids and their grandparents closer together.

Solving Puzzles

Children, especially younger ones, love trying to solve puzzles, whether a puzzle is the traditional 1,000-piece kind or a puzzle that involves finding the answers to crossword puzzle clues. The best puzzles to solve come with an “All Ages,” label, which means you and your grandchildren should be able to enjoy working together on solving a puzzle that presents a reasonable level of difficulty.

Movie Night

Sometimes, all a grandparent has to do is microwave a large bowl of popcorn, and then allow a movie to consume the majority of time during a visit with a grandchild at a senior housing facility in Everett, Washington. As with finding the right puzzle, the key to watching a movie with your grandchild involves finding one that is appropriate for all ages. Disney movies represent a good starting point for choosing the right movie for you and your grandchild to watch.

Create Christmas Ornaments

No other time of year elicits more of an expression of wonder than the time children spend with their grandparents between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Taking advantage of the incredible wonder displayed by grandchildren should include time spent with them creating Christmas decorations, from the ornaments hung on pine and cedar trees to the lights that adorn the front of a home. Creating Christmas ornaments with your grandchild or grandchildren represents an effective way to forge a closer bond.
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Start a Garden

The best activities for seniors with their grandchildren are teaching moments grandchildren take away for the rest of their lifetimes. One of the most relevant teaching moments concerns explaining where some of the food comes from that arrives on our dinner plates. Planting a garden teaches children that not only does our food require care to nurture and develop, but it also can help us become more self-sufficient.

As a highly-rated assisted living facility, MorningStar at Silver Lake offers the ideal environment for seniors to get closer to their grandchildren. Learn more today by submitting the short online form.

4 SPRING ACTIVITIES FOR SENIORS

With spring on hold for many parts of the United States, you might not be thinking about the activities you love to do during the season of nature’s rejuvenation. However, the re-emergence of Old Man Winter is just a temporary hold on spring, which should be back in full swing shortly.

Spring represents the time of year to celebrate by getting back outdoors to participate in your favorite activities. As a senior living at our senior housing facility in Everett, Washington, what is your favorite activity related to spring?

We have compiled a list of four popular spring activities for seniors to add to your list.

Exercise

Cabin fever is just an expression, not a medical term to describe an ailment. Nonetheless, cabin fever can lead to prolonged periods of inactivity during the colder months of the year. Spring represents the time of year to go outside and exercise your inactive bones and muscles. Walking is not only a healthy activity for developing bone and muscle strength, but it also is one of the most effective exercises to strengthen your cardiovascular system.

Exercising outdoors delivers several other health benefits for seniors living in assisted living facilities, such as decreasing blood pressure, improving balance and coordination, and encouraging more robust blood circulation.

Spend Time with Nature

Getting outdoors when spring arrives is not just about the physical health benefits. Simply spending time with nature delivers several mental health benefits as well. The sight of a hawk, the scent of blooming flowers, and the touch of the warm, gentle air all contribute to making highly positive impressions on the brain.

You can spend time at your favorite spot waiting for the deer to enjoy their daily meal or visit a farmers market where nature meets commerce, as well as help build a more sustainable environment. Planting a garden or spending time at a nursery represent two more activities that are tailor-made for spring. Instead of waiting for birds to visit your assisted living facility, build a bird feeder to act like a magnet for attracting several different species.

Plan Family Picnics

One of the keys to living a vibrant lifestyle at a senior housing facility in Everett, Washington involves keeping your brain active. One of the most effective ways to achieve this goal is to plan family picnics. Not only do you stimulate the brain by planning family picnics, but you also get to enjoy spending time with your children and grandchildren.

You can plan one picnic at your assisted living facility and for the next picnic, plan it to take place at your favorite city park.
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Play Outdoor Sports

Spring is the time of year when tennis courts receive a thorough cleaning and swimming pools start to fill up with watersport aficionados. If you want to participate in a less strenuous type of outdoor sport, try playing a round at a local miniature golf course or reserve a time slot for playing 18 holes on a real golf course. Other outdoor sports to consider include cycling, ping pong, and even a few chess matches.

MorningStar Senior assisted living facilities encourage our guests to lead self-sufficient lifestyles, while enjoying the amenities offered by a full-service community. If you or a loved one is considering moving into a senior housing facility in Everett, Washington, connect with one of our guest services representatives to discover what MorningStar assisted living facilities have to offer.