The love of a grandchild is irreplaceable, especially during these times.

So the pandemic for me… has been a multilevel growth experience. I have found it to be an opportunity as well as making it necessary to find ways to be self-empowered. The Zoom classes themselves with Steve were a huge gift to me because I could see faces and kid around in “Funshine” fashion and feel more connected to all of you. Those little interactions were very grounding for me and moving around in class kind of woke up my body and reminded me we are in this together.

Like everybody else I still have enough contact with the outside world and family to be prompted to deal with stress and/or day-to-day conflicts. In addition, I’ve had some health challenges to do with aging that have required me to rise to the occasion and make positive progress despite obstacles.

Something huge for me has been my own self-implemented mindfulness practices. There are many coaches out there on the Internet through YouTube or podcasts whose advice has allowed me to reach new heights in my cognitive flexibility. Turns out it is well known that after age 70 cognitive flexibility tends to diminish. I am determined to work on cognitive flexibility as life throws new problematic situations my way.

Caroline Meeks

Funshine being Funshine

So I’ve been learning online and developing psychological skills to keep my balance emotionally. I appreciate inspirational talks and interviews: for example, Oprah‘s super soul series, Wayne Dyer’s motivational ideas, Deepak Chopra,  TED Talks, best-seller author interviews and more.

To me, mindfulness means to pause and notice the day-to-day miracles of life. Albert Einstein said something like this: There are two kinds of people in this life. Some think nothing is a miracle… Others think everything is a miracle. Sam Berns (TED Talks) was a kid who had severe disabilities; he said something like this: I don’t worry so much about the things I can’t do… Because there’s so many things I still can do!

P.S. For those of you who might be interested in learning more about mindfulness and meditation there is a free online course available (the link is below). You can start anytime. This course is legit and the usual cost to enroll is $450. There is lots of research to back the effectiveness of these tools for reducing stress, increasing well-being, and working through the sorts of health issues that can come up for us as seniors.

https://palousemindfulness.com