Group Meditation: 5 Reasons Why Seniors Should Give It A Try
Older people spend most of their time being alone, reading, or watching TV. They do this routine again and again, which leads them to feel bored. They may decide to do things they love before, but they can’t anymore because of limited mobility. Their body seems to be no longer workable like before. They experience this because of sudden leg weaknesses, friction between bones, joints, and tissues. Thus, they feel helpless most of the time.
Aging can sometimes lead one to become depressed. It is what you need to control. The more seniors become depressed, the more they will be isolated from everything, and that is not what you want for your loved one. We at Serenity Senior Care believe that this isolation will only make their depression worse. That is why they need to meet other people who can relate to them and understand what they are going through. And as someone who looks after their welfare, you also need to encourage them to engage in activities that promote their well-being. This way, you can help seniors deal with anxiety and depression.
Meditation, among many things, can help your loved one feel relaxed and remain calm under pressure or stress in life. Meditation allows one to feel at peace because it helps your loved one relax his mind and body. That is why you should help your loved one find something to do to eliminate boredom.
What is Meditation?
Meditation is an activity that involves mental focus. It’s all about controlling one’s mind, thoughts, and feelings to bring them into harmony with oneself or others. It’s about turning off the inner noise for a while, gaining control over one’s mind, calming the breath to find inner peace, and learning to relate to yourself.
Meditation is a way of relieving stress and anxiety. It also makes your senior loved ones happier because it helps improve their stamina, memory, immune system, or just plain feeling confidence. Meditation is much more effective when it’s done with a group.
At Serenity Senior Care, we always thrive on helping seniors attain quality living. That’s why we dedicate ourselves to sharing ideas and ways you can take to help your loved ones feel happy in their golden years. Encouraging them to try group meditation is one way to help. And to give you a clearer idea about it, we give the reasons why senior loved ones should try it.
5 Reasons Why Your Senior Loved One Should Give It A Try
- Everything is Better When Shared – Meditation can help your aging loved one make a connection with other seniors while tapping into the same silence and peace at the same time. Your loved one can meet seniors at the same wavelength. Electroencephalogram results have shown that brainwaves of those who share the same state of consciousness tend to synchronize.
- Meditating with a Group Of Individuals Helps to Develop a Habit – It can help your loved ones turn meditation into a habit. The more one practices it; the more your loved one will want to do it. A meditation group can encourage your loved one to do meditation consistently.
- The Feedback is Available – Meditation groups include practitioners of different levels. Suppose your loved one is new to meditation. In that case, other members will present themselves and clear up any confusion your loved one may have over various types of meditation. They will help your loved one find answers addressing difficulties with practice and give feedback about the experiences that arise during the meditation session.
- Power In Numbers – The healing power nurtured in group meditation is more effective than meditating alone. Studies prove the existence of a ripple effect of peace in the environment when your loved one and other group members meditate together.
- Group Meditation is Physically Good for Seniors – Studies have revealed that meditation is very good for the heart. It is a simple practice that keeps one from getting sick and helps build a stronger immune system. Your aging loved one can also lower blood pressure with it. Additionally, joining a group like a group meditation can cut your loved one’s risk of dying in the next year in half.
9 Types of Meditation
With that in mind, We at Serenity Senior Care will provide you with nine types of meditation practice. Try to learn them all and choose which one fits your loved one’s interests. Then encourage them to join group meditation that focuses on that practice.
1. Mindfulness Meditation
In mindfulness meditation, your loved ones pay attention to their thoughts as they pass by through their mind. They don’t judge the thoughts or be involved with them. They observe and identify any patterns. This meditation practice involves concentration with awareness. Your loved one may find it ideal for focusing on an object or their breath while they observe any thoughts, bodily sensations, or feelings.
2. Spiritual Meditation
Spiritual meditation may seem like it is similar to mindfulness meditation. However, there is a difference between the two. Your loved one both involve the same process of allowing thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations to flow without judging them. But in spiritual meditation, your loved one will focus on God, awareness, and love for self and others while meditating. This meditation practice aims to understand oneself and their experience with awareness and love for self and others. They can also open themselves up to divine energy through spirituality when they are doing it.
3. Focused Meditation
It is another form of mindfulness meditation. But in this type of meditation, your loved one will focus on something specific, such as a sound or breath. They will also try to find inner peace by focusing on one thing. It aims to find peace and relaxation by focusing on something like a sound or breath. This meditation practice has been used as a stress relief technique since antiquity.
4. Movement Meditation
Many people would think of yoga when they hear this meditation practice. Movement meditation may include gardening, walking through the woods, and other forms of motion. It is an active form of meditation practice where the movements guide your loved one.
5. Mantra Meditation
Mantra meditation involves the repetition of a word or phrase over and over again. The goal is to bring your loved one’s awareness back to their breath and body. It also involves a love for self and others as well as divine energy. Your loved one will find inner peace, love, and peace through this practice.
6. Transcendental Meditation
It is a learned technique where your loved ones will rise above what is going on around them and connect to the infinite. This type of meditation practice has been used for many years to relieve stress and anxiety. Through it, you can achieve a certain state of mental and physical relaxation and awareness.
7. Progressive Relaxation
It is also known as controlled tension, muscle relaxation, or autogenic relaxation. It involves tensing and relaxing different muscle groups in order to promote deep relaxation. You can use it when your loved one is feeling stressed or tense.
8. Loving-Kindness Meditation
In loving-kindness meditation, your loved ones will focus on themselves and others. They will also use the principles of metta meditation. It is a spiritual meditation that involves thoughts or feelings of kindness, compassion, and love towards others and the self. The goal is to let go of pain and suffering by cultivating a deep state of love for self and others.
9 Visualization Meditation
It involves generating a mental image in your mind while meditating. The image that you create should be calming, soothing, or inspiring. In this type of meditation practice, you can visualize anything from ocean waves to a calming desert landscape. The goal is to relax the body by just imagining it.
These are the types of meditation practice that your senior loved can try in group meditation. These meditation practices will help them cope with the ups and downs of aging. It’s a good idea to encourage your loved ones to learn all of these types of meditation practice, but it is wise to be careful when choosing which type is best for them.