Articles
The Journal on Active Aging brings articles of value to professionals dedicated to older-adult quality of life. Content sweeps across the active-aging landscape to focus on education and practice. Find articles of interest by searching the article archives in three ways: Enter a keyword in the articles search bar; click on search by topic; or type a keyword or phrase in the general search bar at the top of the page.
Topic- Spiritual wellness
Spiritual wellness: finding connections for optimal health and successful aging by Donald DeMars, AIA, IIDA
When Colin Milner, founder of the International Council on Active Aging® and publisher of this Developer’s Guide, invited me to submit an article on spiritual wellness, I thought to myself, “Why, my entire life has prepared me to write an article on this subject!” I’m certainly in the “aging cycle” at the age of 67. I’ve had my share of life’s challenges. I’m still extremely productive, and happy every day—all of this I attribute to my spiritual wellness.
Beginnings
Although I’ve spent the last 30 years as an architect and development consultant helping people achieve optimal environments for health, it was an eventful journey reaching this profession.
Beginning with a difficult encounter with polio at age 10 that included two years in an iron lung and left me with paralysis, some back deformity and years of rehabilitative surgeries, I’ve spent my life living with limited vital capacity and post-polio syndrome. I had supportive parents, and the good fortune to encounter a dynamic “significant other”—a young Lutheran pastor who took an interest in me and encouraged me to think about the ministry. This gave my life direction, and motivated me to catch up the four years of school I had missed in just one year’s time. I graduated from college and spent almost three years in the seminary, including one year of clinical counseling training. How then did I become an architect? And what has all of this to do with spiritual wellness? In my third year of seminary, I found out who I was and what I was really meant to do. I left to pursue art and design (it’s in my genes!) and a new calling: To design and develop health and fitness environments conducive to creating quality of life at any age.
Spiritual wellness
Challenge as spiritual care by Nancy Gordon, MDiv, CASP
Since I came to the California Lutheran Homes Center for Spirituality and Aging, many staff in retirement communities and long-term care have said to me, “You know, I’m really not very spiritual and I have a hard time understanding how to serve the spiritual needs of residents.” Also, our system’s Vitality team leader has expressed frustration about the inability to quantitatively measure the effectiveness of programming around spirituality. She can provide hard numbers on the increased fitness of virtually any participant in her fitness and swimming programs, but how does she or anyone else measure spiritual growth?
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Spirituality in the real world: challenges and opportunities by Marilynn Larkin
The holiday season, perhaps more than any other time of the year, brings the concept of spirituality to the fore. Yet, among the 6 dimensions of wellness that many active aging professionals strive to foster in their environments, the spiritual dimension seems to present the most challenges.
There is little consensus about what spirituality means in the context of older adult settings, how to make the vision a reality, or who should spearhead these efforts. But as managers and staff grapple with these issues, they share at least one thing in common: recognition that integrating the spiritual dimension of wellness is important.
Spiritual wellness
Engaging loneliness in older adults by Donald R. Koepke, MDiv, BCC
Loneliness. We all experience it; we all witness it. It’s an emotional state that results from isolation—a belief that no one understands or cares. Loneliness differs from aloneness, however. To be alone just means no one else is around at the moment. To be alone with one’s thoughts, feelings and beliefs can cleanse and strengthen individuals. But to be lonely is to want people and social contact, and feel unable, in one’s estimation, to get this contact.
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Engaging the inner voice by Donald R. Koepke, MDiv, BCC
What is the inner voice? Some people experience it as conscience. Freudians might explain it as the Super Ego. For many, the inner voice sounds like one’s mother whispering in the ear. Individuals may refer to the inner voice as their feelings, random thoughts or memories, while still others experience it as a connection with the real self or even a Higher Being. Although everyone might interpret the purpose and source of this inner voice differently, all still encounter the voice within that guides, for good or ill, behaviors, beliefs and emotions.
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Valuing the spirit in clients with dementia by Donald R. Koeple, Mdiv
When contemplating how fitness and wellness professionals might encourage mental and cognitive health in older adults, it is important to explore the effects of dementia on these efforts. For, on its surface, dementia seems to remove the very characteristics of the person being encouraged and developed.
Instead of being able to judge what is best for the self, people with dementia lose the capacity to consider consequences of actions, because they often have little regard for the past or future. Many of these individuals have difficulty remembering the way to the bathroom, much less remembering more complex tasks. They truly live in the moment.
