Having faith in yourself is the basis for accomplishing anything. Yes dementia creates limitations, but you can accomplish so much more than you thought.
So many things can cause these type of days, but here’s where living positively will make a difference. You don’t start with just saying OK I’m going to be positive; you start with a purpose.
Once you’ve moved to acceptance of yourself in your situation, you can start to move forward. Start rethinking; re-prioritizing things that you like to do with your remaining time. Find a new philosophy of life, put family and God first, and strive to make each day count.
When I was almost at the bottom and feeling discouraged a member of the sailing club saw I was about to give up and he came over to give me a pep talk. I told him all things I tried to do to make my sailboat go faster, how I tried to keep up with the fleet....
We are all going to die. But the fact that there was a relative estimate of the time frame somehow allowed me to have a whole new outlook on life. One I wish I could share with everyone.
Music can frame some of our greatest moments, joy, sorrow, love and of course pain and loss. So many emotions can be captured in music. So many things can change with Dementia but music, yes music can still help us find and even remember joy in the morning.
Purpose, the fifth coping mechanism it is about having the ability to focus our energies. It helps us feel like what we’re doing is a contribution to others or to something more important than just simply sitting around waiting for the inevitable.
Read / Listen to books that answer questions about life, God, or people that can help you stay positive. Like me, you may have been a science fiction reader, or a war history reader, or murder mysteries. My strong advice is STOP reading these types of books. Dementia and especially LBD can cause people to be violent and angry, and reading this type of material feeds that feeling and a sense of anxiety.
Wake Up Early – If possible, enjoy the sunrise. Take in the quiet, enjoy the slow pace of the early morning. Use this time to meditate, give thanks to God, there is always something to be thankful about. If you're keeping a journal, write, and of course exercise.
Living Positively with LBD or any form of dementia is about putting action to each day. Making the choice to do things that matter, things that effect your sprit in a way that feeds your positive energy. Here are ten way to get you started.