Assisted Living San Francisco Bay Area, Ca

March 7, 2009

The Chateau of Pleasant Hill, California is a senior living community that offers assisted living, Alzheimer’s care, dementia care, home care and a whole host of senior care services.

Ruby MacDonald writes a monthly column in the Senior Insights Newsletter and it has become a favorite amongst the elderly residents who say that Ruby’s positive words and inspirations make them feel wonderful.

Ruby’s word for the day:

EMPOWERED LIVING   by  Ruby MacDonald                                                     

HOW WELL ARE YOU . . .   HEARING ?                                                                                          

Empowered living includes the use of our very important five senses. “Hearing” is one of those senses. It’s one fifth. For those who cannot hear, one-fifth of their senses are impaired.
I do not take hearing for granted because my hearing became impaired around midlife. I speak from experience when I say that not being able to hear easily causes many problems and changes in lifestyle. For instance, do you hesitate answering the phone? Or do you only use the phone when it’s an absolute necessity? Has your social life receded and slowly turned you into an introvert? Do you stay away from social gatherings because you can’t hear in a crowd?

Rush Limbaugh, the nationally syndicated radio talk show host, experienced a rapid loss of hearing and within three months he was deaf in one ear and had an 80% loss in the other. He could no longer understand radio, TV, or the voices of call-in listeners. He has a severe bi-laterial sensorineural hearing loss due to an autoimmune inner ear disease. AIED causes less than 1% of all cases of sensorineural hearing loss; most cases are due to aging, noise exposure, or inherited hearing loss and develop very gradually. Most patients respond to early treatment of steroids and benefit from the use of hearing aids; some need cochlear implants.

Today there is little or no excuse for anyone to be hearing impaired even though statistics show that most people with  hearing loss do nothing about it! A healthy, positive approach is to take charge of your hearing healthcare and find a way to hear as well as possible again. Nothing can be done until you admit you have a hearing loss.

Which type are you?  Do you consider your hearing “good enough” to get by on?”  It doesn’t matter that you force everyone to repeat nearly everything they say? Or, do you want to hear as well as possible?  I hope you cherish the latter and want to enjoy hearing to the fullest.

Here are a few empowering secrets to hearing: Wear hearing aids in one or both ears. Lipreading is helpful as a third hearing aid. There are telephone and TV amplifiers. Ask people to look at you and speak more slowly. In a group, always sit by a wall to block sounds.

Find a good audiologist, one recommended by a friend rather than selected at random from the phone book. They will evaluate your hearing and hearing needs

SENIOR LIVING SOLUTIONS

February 25, 2009

Senior Living Solutions Overview:Once submitted, you can sit back, relax, and leave the work to us! Within hours, we will email you valuable information that will help you not only understand the different senior housing and care options available but also supply you with vital information that will educate you on what to look for and what questions to ask before making any commitment. And once your request has been assessed, a qualified retirement counselor will contact you directly by your preferred method of communication, via phone or email to further discuss how to best address your senior housing and eldercare needs.

Our mission is to offer you the very best in Senior Living and Senior Care service. To help ensure this, all providers are screened and vetted prior to participating in our program, so you can feel confident knowing that you are being referred only to quality and safe organizations.  And unlike most online referral programs, with Senior Living Solutions you are under NO OBLIGATION to buy anything, ever.Senior Living and Senior Care Services Available to You:
When it comes to caring for an elderly loved one, a variety of different services may be required.  Senior Living Solutions is ready to help with each and every one of them. Here are just a few of the services available through Senior Living Solutions:

*Assisted Living Facilities
*Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Facilities
*Independent Senior Apartments
*Home Care

 

*Short Term Respite and/or vacation staysFrequently Asked Questions About Senior Living Solutions:

*Am I obligated to buy anything?
No. Never. By completing a Needs Assessment survey, you are under NO obligation to purchase anything.  We simply provide you with options and leave the decision entirely up to you as to whether you would like to follow up with any of the network service or product providers who respond to your request.

How are Senior Living Solutions providers screened?
Depending on the particular industry, each eldercare provider specialty has its own set of standards and certifications.  In order to participate in the Senior Living Solutions network, providers must provide evidence that they are legally authorized to provide the services and/or products they sell to consumers. Furthermore, each and every provider is required at all times to meet Senior Living Solutions Provider Participation Standards and abide by Senior Living Solutions Terms of Use. If, for any reason, Senior Living Solutions learns that a provider has failed to meet or abide by before mentioned Standards and/or Terms of Use, the provider will be disqualified from continued participation in the Senior Living Solutions program.

What if there are no participating providers who meet my needs in my geographic area?
If there are no providers in the Senior Living Solutions network that meet your specific requirements, we will promptly notify you and give you the option to either save or permanently remove your information from the Senior Living Solutions secure database.  By opting to save your information in our database, we can notify you at a later date if a provider enters our network and is right for your personal needs.

What if we’re not satisfied with the service we receive from the provider?
Because all providers who participate in the Senior Living Solutions network are independently owned and operated, all customer satisfaction issues and/or complaints must be handled through the individual provider or company. To help make sure you receive the appropriate level of attention, Senior Living Solutions requires all participating providers to have a published policy regarding customer dispute resolution. If your complaint has gone unaddressed or you are dissatisfied with the response from one of our participating providers, please let us know. Providers who demonstrate a pattern of unresolved customer satisfaction complaints and/or problems can be terminated from participating in our program.

If I don’t pay for this service, who does?
Senior care providers pay a fee to be able to participate in the Senior Living Solutions program, allowing us to offer you the highest quality matching service at absolutely no cost to you.

Find local Senior Living Solutions providers and senior services

What Makes a Great Senior Community?

February 3, 2009

The Executive Director. The Administrator. The person who puts a team together that has one common goal; to give their residents a truly outstanding lifestyle. A lifestyle rich in love and compassion, understanding and dedication.

But to often seniors move into an Assisted Living community because they appreciate the decor, or the size of the apartments or that it’s in the town they’re most familiar. But little do they know, choosing a senior living residence is as important as choosing a spouse. The community will take on the overall personality of the one who is directing it. If you have a stale, bitter director, you’ll have a stale, bitter community. If you have a happy, peaceful director, guess what? You’ll have a happy and peaceful community.

Have you ever heard the term, Like attracts like? When the director hires the team that will be running the facility, they will hire people that generally have similiar attitudes and beliefs as their own. Believe it or not, this will even trickle down to the types of residents who decide to move into the community. Like atracts like. Happy director, happy residents. Un-happy director, un-happy residents. So if you want to save time and money investigating which Senior Living Community is right for you, start at the top and get to know the Executive Director first. And remember, like attracts like. Practice happiness:)

Moving Into An ASSISTED LIVING CENTER?

January 31, 2009

Moving into an Assisted Living Center can be a very big change in a seniors life. There are many things to consider when choosing a community that will fit your needs and lifestyle. We have put together a FREE report and an ASSISTED LIVING TOURING CHECKLIST to help you understand what to look for and what questions to ask when doing your research. Click here to VIEW The “Assisted Living Center: 11 Things To Know Before You Move” and to receive the Free Assisted Living Touring CheckList, “35 Questions To Ask To Ensure You’re Choosing Right!”

A few tips Prior to Moving In:

* Read all the materials about the assisted living center before you move in.
* Measure the closet space and don’t bring too many of one thing such as coats.
* Try to meet the Executive Director and the staff before moving in.
* Pack wisely. Do not bring everything. Downsizing is the name of the game. Make life easier.
* Read the activity schedule and choose two or three programs to attend early on to meet new neighbors and other residents.

Assisted Living Center: Senior Living Solutions, San Francisco, California

What Are You Creating Right Now? – Assisted Living Insights

January 31, 2009

WHAT ARE YOU CREATING RIGHT NOW?

“You create your thoughts, your thoughts create your intentions, and your intentions create your reality.”
Dr. Wayne Dyer

By Ruby MacDonald

For years I’ve been fascination by the human brain and its vast potential. First from a psychological v.p. & now from a spiritual view point, not in the religious sense, but in the more mystical/creative realm. I’m convinced that our ability to create begins in our brain; God created us to create. Creation begins with one tiny thought. It may come from within you, or someone else, and once you accept it as yours and begin to think about it, you’ve started the process of creation. The more emotion you have with that thought the more powerful is your ability to attract what you want. Once your brain gets the go-ahead from you, it springs into action and clicks in to perform your command perfectly. That is why it’s extremely important to be aware of your own thoughts and the words you say. Your brain doesn’t sort out positive from the negative; it waits for your command. It simply acts on your thought.
I’ve spent half of my life learning about and teaching how powerful the brain is and how important our thoughts are. When I was a kid I used to hear my father speak of the dreaded “evil eye” in his native Sicily. I snickered and thought it was a bunch of nonsense even though the stories made the hair on the back of my neck stand at attention. I’ve since learned about the power of the mind and believe that if I told you that something terrible was going to happen to you, and you believed me, YOU could make it happen simply by the power/energy/focus you give it; your own mind would work to carry out whatever you feared.
I believe that the power of the mind can also make us ill, or worse. One of my favorite examples of the power of suggestion is this one: During the winter months we are ambushed with news that the flu is epidemic. We’re sure we can’t escape it so we begin to worry. If we get the sniffles we’re certain we’ve got something that’s going around. We reinforce our fear by thinking that we have a cold, and we tell everyone who will listen. (It may have only been hay fever.) Next, we think we will be really sick, probably run a fever and by the end of the week we are certain we will be in bed vomiting or worse. Well, guess what? I believe that since we’ve programmed ourselves for a week full of illness— that is exactly what we will get. We’ve created it with our powerful minds. The brain has taken instructions and followed them exactly as we’ve prescribed it.
Arthritis is one of my pet peeves. If we break or sprain something doctors are quick to say arthritis will set in. My doc knows “I don’t do arthritis.” She snickers. I refer to it as the nasty “A” word. People take possession of arthritis as soon as they think they have it. I.E.: A younger friend’s fingers began aching; her mother had arthritis so she was certain she’d inherited it. (How many of us do that?) She took possession of it and referred to it as “my arthritis.” We had a little discussion and it “amazingly” disappeared! I believe strongly that it isn’t necessary to talk about any symptom or medical sentence your doctor has decreed for you. To acknowledge it is to reinforce it. Taking possession of it and making it yours only gives it permission to proceed. Once we start talking about it to others, it grabs that energy/power to accelerate. That energy can better be used to create positive thoughts of healing for yourself. Get the needed treatment. Then if you must tell someone, say, “I’m catching healing,” and let it go. You can tell those symptoms that they are not welcome in your body and to flee. You must believe it, however, and you must be persistent, for the habit of illness is like a child who pushes the envelope to see if you mean business.. It’s up to you to stick in there and show the old habit who is boss. It takes a while to break old habits and patterns, so don’t expect the symptoms to disappear quickly. Like a spoiled child who is suddenly being disciplined, there will be rebellion within. Remember to put lots of emotion behind your thoughts of healing and be persistent.
We are never too old or too sick or too busy, to have creative minds. We “create” every second of every day and it is either negative or positive —depleting energy or increasing energy.
We deplete our energy if we focus on a negative situation, be it our own or someone else’s. Our energy level plummets and a cloud of doom and gloom cloaks us. When we change our thought pattern to those that are sunny, energy levels are elevated to a healthier state; we are less vulnerable to illness & to attracting negative thinking people into our lives.. Thoughts are contagious. Choose wisely.

“As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright, happy, or serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity.” — James Allen 1864-1912 (note the dates—this is not “new age” enlightenment, but time-proven.)

THAT NASTY FOUR LETTER WORD – Senior Living Insights

January 3, 2009

THAT NASTY FOUR LETTER WORD

 

Yes, I’m writing about the “F” word.

This “F” word is – F-E-A-R, one of the most crippling of the four letter words. We all have some. FEAR directs our lives with enough strength and power to keep us confined within the steel cell of our minds. A prisoner of “fear.”  If you doubt it, take time to honestly examine your own fears to see how they have kept you in bondage. How have they denied you some of the joys of life? What have you always wanted to do but didn’t because of fear?

Some of us have worked hard to remove one steel bar at a time. Others tend to be content within their prisons. Few if any of us live within the freedoms that are ours simply for the taking.   The unfortunate thing about fear is that not only does it deny us the freedom to live; it is consciously or unconsciously passed on from one generation to the next.

My own mother had far too many fears that she passed on to her four daughters. She was fearful of the water and didn’t want us to drown. She was fearful of bikes and skates, so we were “saved” from falling down and bruising ourselves. The dark. What people would say if….And the list could go on and on.

As many of you know, Tom and I spend as much time on the water as possible. Vacation destinations are mostly to the ocean. And boating is a top priority. But I don’t know how to swim so I play it safe and cautiously while others are in the warm tropical water snorkeling or swimming to cool off. The turning point for me was a recent incident where we were in a water taxi going from one small island to the main one. I usually wear a lifejacket, but our luggage had already been stacked forward and the lifejackets were all beyond reach in the nose of the bow. After our group of six boarded, several islanders came aboard making far too many people for such a narrow wooden boat. The half hour ride was riddled with fear as each of us knew that it would not take much to tip the boat. I realized then how unfair it was that I could not swim and others would have the responsibility of saving me, in addition to themselves, if we’d capsized. The only way to conquer fear is to face it, and so I’m taking swim lessons. And so, “You can teach an old dog new tricks!”  So don’t you dare use “age” as an excuse.

My fellow-writer, Marion Duckworth said, “Isn’t it interesting that you are doing so well so quickly and fear kept you from learning to swim. A message for all of us.”

            The point is, that for many of us, life is quickly fleeting by and we are missing out on living life to the fullest because of our fears. Now, while the clock still clicks, it is a good time to do something that your fears have stolen from you..  The four letter word can be turned into a five letter word: FAITH in yourself and your ability to CHANGE. One of the best ways to initiate a change is to state what your intention is for that fear. Intention is just another way of saying that we can create what we think about. Our first thought becomes an “intention” about a specific fear, emotion or attitude.

In a new movie, “What the Bleep! Do We Know!?,  which is sweeping the country,  Dr. Joe Dispenza says, “I wake up in the morning, and I consciously create my day the way I want it to happen. Now, sometimes, because my mind is examining all the things that I need to get done, it takes me a little bit to settle down, and get to the point of where I’m actually intentionally creating my day. But here’s the thing. When I create my day, … out of nowhere, little things happen that are so unexplainable; I know they are the process or the result of my creation. And the more I do that, the more I build a neural net in my brain, (and I can) accept that that’s possible. It gives me the power and the incentive to do it…”   (This amazing movie will be shown in Walnut Creek on August 13, 04.)

I’ve written about the power of intention before but it is so powerful and I’m so excited about the possibilities that you’ll just have to bear with me because I really want you to get the concept. It’s so simple that it would be easy to think it doesn’t matter. But it does. Here is how to make it work for you:

·         Break your day into segment. A segment begins the moment you wake up and have a first thought.

·         Now direct that thought into an intention. Send out the thought of what kind of day you’d like to have. Perhaps you felt grumpy, or not as well as you’d like to feel. The thought you’d send out is for health and joy and you would concentrate on those.

·         The next thing you do becomes a segment, and so on all through the day. Before you begin each segment, direct your thoughts towards a positive, joyful outcome.

·         Now you are in control of your thoughts, your day, and your life. You will feel more in control instead of out of control.

·         Believe!  (FAITH REPLACES FEAR)

Had Tom and I and our group taken control of the segment before we stepped into that island boat in Tonga, directing it to safety, we would have spoken to the captain about the vessel being overloaded and asked the islanders to wait for the next boat taxi since we had a plane to catch that morning and needed to get to shore. And we would have made sure that we had easy access to the life jackets and I would have been wearing one. In other words, having a clear intention as we go through the day, assures us less stress and gives us more of what we really want.  It gives us control over our fears and allows us to create a positive outcome.  So—NEVER AGAIN AVOID THE FOUR LETTER WORD, “FEAR.”