Mindfulness for Depression: A Gentle Path to Wellness

Did you know that 79% of adults reported that practicing mindfulness enhanced their overall health and well-being? At Liberty Court, we're witnessing firsthand how beneficial mindfulness for depression can be, and we teach our residents how to wield it for undeniable results.

Located only a couple of miles from the heart of Dixon, our senior living community makes mental well-being a top priority, and we're proud to report that the mental health of our residents has never been better.

Read on to learn more about our methods and why we believe mindfulness to be a skill that shouldn't be overlooked when it comes to emotional support for seniors.

Mindfulness for Depression

Depression is an easy rut to get stuck in, especially if we've had no training or direction when it comes to dealing with it effectively. Unfortunately, it seems as if depression is only on the rise, and open and frank discussion surrounding it is often hard to find. Feeling anything other than boundlessly optimistic is seen as somehow shameful, making it hard for many sufferers of depression to open up and talk about their plight.

Emotional support for seniors is particularly hard to come by sometimes, as older folks don't typically have as many opportunities to socialize and divulge their problems to a sympathetic ear. At Liberty Court, we aim for that to never be a problem for our seniors, so we encourage open discussion of mindfulness and aging between our residents. One such activity is to arrange for talks on mindfulness, what it is, and how best to make the most of it.

As it turns out, seniors are particularly adept at understanding the core concepts of mindfulness and using them to benefit themselves directly. The degree of positive change mindfulness practices have had on some of our residents is astonishing, and we're only getting started! The wisdom of years has its uses, after all, and it's apparent that powers of introspection are greatly enhanced if you've led a long life.

Mental Health in Assisted Living

To ensure that our residents are equipped to face life head-on, we've incorporated a range of activities to arm them with powerful stress relief tools. One such tool, mindfulness, offers us many key benefits:

• It's free and requires no financial investment.

• It's easy to get to grips with and can be learned with minimal practice.

• It's accessible to all, no matter the time or place!

Mindfulness, in short, is the name given for directing our attention inward so we might understand our automatic processes a little better. We go through our daily lives with ceaseless narration playing in the background, a stream of words we only half listen to. Despite not paying full attention to this chatter, we spend a lot of energy maintaining it, even if the message is generally negative.

This internal dialogue has a large part to play in how we see the world, and our place within it. It describes who we think we are, and how we're likely to act. It maintains feelings of guilt and regret through its cyclical nature and doesn't allow much in the way of reprieve.

Fortunately, there's a way to stop it in its tracks, and its name is mindfulness.

Senior Depression Help

Learning how mindfulness works is easy, as it only takes five minutes or so of quiet introspection to notice the trend our thoughts take. Once we've spent some time watching the thoughts that regularly occur to us unbidden, our outlook tends to make more sense. If we're depressed all the time and don't know why, it pays to consult our internal dialogue.

Observing the thoughts that appear regularly helps enormously in understanding ourselves, and how important it is that we don't allow them to continue without guidance. The energy it takes to maintain these unhelpful narratives is considerable. Learning to stop their unending procession retains the energy that would otherwise be spent contributing to our misery.

Mindfulness recaptures and repurposes this energy through the use of directed thought and understanding. Spending energy reminding ourselves constantly that we're not good enough, bound to fail, or deserving of our misery is a waste of time, and cripples us unnecessarily. Mindfulness practitioners quickly find the truth in this, and the joy that comes from the revelation is a balm many medications fail to compete with.

Community Mindfulness

One of the wonderful things about mindfulness is the peace it propagates within communities. As each individual experiences the benefits of mindfulness on an individual basis, the effect begins to spread as their perspective shifts into a more positive light. Before long, each person's positive change has a cumulative effect on the community as a whole, an effect that makes maintaining a healthier outlook easier for everyone.

Ultimately, we often fail to assign our mental health the importance it deserves. We're selfish with how we deal with our internal landscape, forgetting that how we feel has an indirect effect on those around us, too. Mindfulness promotes an environment of positivity and growth by diverting our energy down more constructive routes, an outcome that benefits everyone.

We need only remember a time someone's positivity had a welcome effect on us personally. Some people radiate kindness and understanding to the point that it's a pleasure to simply be in their vicinity. The power of a positive perspective is undeniable, and something worth nurturing within ourselves for the sake of others, let alone ourselves.

Mindfulness at Liberty Court, Dixon

If you're looking for a smaller assisted living and memory care community, we hope you'll consider us. We're proud to say that our seniors live a full and contented life, and believe our introduction to mindfulness has an integral part to play.

Mindfulness for depression continues to prove to be an effective tool for our seniors, and one they're keen to tell their friends and family about. If you'd like to learn more about our methods or available activities, don't hesitate to reach out! Mindfulness is the least of what's available at Liberty Court, and we look forward to telling you all about it.