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Make Happiness Happen!
By
Beverly Moore |
 Quincy
- Believe it or not, August is Happiness Happens Month.
Where do they come up with these titles for months anyway?
How does one make happiness happen? One of my coaches,
Susan, gave me a plaque that reads: ‘We don’t remember days;
we only remember moments.’
That is true for all of us. We remember the joy in seeing
our first born for the first time. We remember a moment on a
vacation that brings a smile or a tear.
We hear a song and the feeling it evokes brings to
remembrance who we were with and what we were doing. We are
capable of pulling those special memories out of our head
and enjoy them again.
Happiness for the person with Alzheimer’s however doesn’t
just happen. Since often all the person with memory loss is
aware of is this moment, caregivers need to find how to
create as many happy moments throughout the day as possible.
For each person this can be different. Does music bring a
smile?
One wife, unable to make her aphasic husband understand her
invitation to come to the table to eat, recalled his
happiness while ballroom dancing in years past. They went
dancing weekly then.
She decided to put on dance music during each meal and
invite him to dance which he willingly did. Then she
danced him to the table with a smile. When he saw the visual
cues of a meal on the table he was ready to sit and eat. She
felt joy seeing the happiness on his face so she continued
this dance routine three times a day.
A daughter taped the Judge Judy Show, seeing the enjoyment
her mother got whenever she watched it. When her mother
became restless or irritable, she popped in a Judge Judy
tape. Voila; instant smiles and contentment!
So what makes your family member with Alzheimer’s smile? Is
it old photos? Is it plants? Do they love the beach,
sunsets, baseball games?
Try offering those activities and see what feelings of
happiness you can make happen for both of you. |
About The Author
Beverly Moore is president of Sweet Grapes, Inc. a
licensor for StilMee™ coaches. Stil- Mee™ The leader in
Alzheimer coaching™. Beverly’s book Matters of the Mind…and
the Heart is available on line at www.Stil-Mee.com for an
autographed copy or go to www.strategicbookpublishing.com/MattersOfTheMindAndTheHeart.
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