Page 45 - Vibrant Living Scrapbook

Wellness
We can be meeting all elders’ basic physical needs, and they may even be the ones choosing how those needs are met, but
we can also set our sights well beyond maintenance goals that simply sustain
life. Sustaining life can result in surviving, but our elders deserve better than that we need to shift from a surviving lifestyle to a thriving lifestyle. The idea of wellness goes beyond physical and even social needs to address deeper, more nuanced needs such as those for purpose, touch, home, movement, involvement, and appetite.
Most importantly, the need for wellness challenges our long-held assumptions about elders’ longings and what they are capable of.
Learning Circle Questions
What does “wellness” mean to you?
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High adventure outings...for seniors? Indeed.
And that is what many Big Meadows elders
set out to do. Each spring a group of brave
elders was recruited to think outside the box and challenge themselves to take part in a true outdoor adventure. Elders pushed their fears aside and took part in a variety of events like rope swings, canoeing, and yes, even tree climbing. There
were many purposes for the day, but at the heart of it all was cementing the message that no matter what, you can still try new things
and accomplish the seemingly impossible.
This was best expressed by one particular elder: When being assisted out of her canoe by Administrator Glenn Blacklock, she kissed him on the cheek and said, “I don’t know why I waited 105 years to try that!”