Community News
Back to School – The Right Way

Make sure to get the school year started off right in your home with multivitamins! There are many easy and tasty ways to make this a healthy daily habit for you and your family, and the benefits are outstanding. Multivitamins provide a rich balance of essential nutrients for growing bodies and minds, while supporting digestion and a healthy immune system. Why not include them in breakfasts or bag lunches to promote this healthy lifestyle with your children? Sometimes they even taste like candy! What better way to build a solid foundation for the coming school year.

Living Spiritually in an Everyday World

One of our biggest challenges we face living in a fast-paced world is becoming distracted, enticed and seduced with the idea that “more’’ is better. We are often asked to do more with less, multi task and try to pack in more that we can possibly do or sustain. We are human beings that have forgotten how to “be” as we busy ourselves “doing and producing” to keep things a float and make it all happen. We are a society that needs to learn how to slow down and release the chaotic stress state we’ve gotten ourselves into and learn to unwind. Practicing and embracing the present moment, engaging in the here and now helps slow us down and connect to ourselves, others and the situation in a grounded and calm way so we can take inventory and recharge our batteries…creating a little piece of heaven here on earth.

Make Room in Your Life

Keep What Brings Joy, Release The Rest

Moving is a monumental event which may only occur a few times in our life. If you have lived in the same home for many years packing and deciding what to keep and what to release can feel daunting. Approach this by taking time to envision yourself enjoying your new home. Do you see yourself finally listening to the boxed-up records you’ve faithfully stored in the basement for the last few decades? Keep them! Don’t really like making pasta? No problemo, donate the pasta maker. The key, in moving and in life, is parting with what doesn’t bring us joy, to create room for what does. Desirée Alarie, REALTOR®, Powell Property Group.

Preventing Dehydration in Seniors

Seniors are at risk of dehydration for a variety of reasons. As we age, our sensation of thirst starts to fade. Immobility can also be an issue, as we might not be able to get ourselves something to drink when we need to. Other causes include medication side effects, symptoms of being ill that cause fluid imbalances, increased urination, and decreased kidney function. Symptoms of dehydration range from low urine output to difficulty walking, and can result in life threatening complications. To help seniors avoid dehydration, provide easy access to liquids, serve food with a high water content, and monitor fluid intake and urine output.

Book Club: Whose Mind Is It Anyway?

Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life by Lisa Esile & Franco Esile. Most of us spend our lives trailing after our minds, allowing our brains to take us in directions that are safe and secure, controlled and conformed. Whose Mind Is It Anyway? will help you learn how to separate what you want from what your brain wants and how to do less when your mind is trying to trick you into doing more. In a colorful, funny, and nonthreatening way, it answers the difficult question of how we can take control of our self-defeating behaviors.

Community Event

Balanced Life Experience
October 13 & 14. Assiniboia Downs. Sat 10-8. Sun 10-6. Aligning Body, Mind and Spirit. Event Highlights: Top leaders, practitioners and businesses within the wellness or healthy living industry. Main stage offering free demos, talks, presentations and entertainment. Exciting workshops. Free fitness demos. Reader’s Corner – come see one of our talented intuitives/psychics. Creator’s Corner – Handmade Market. Natural Products. BalancedLifeWpg.ca.

In Your Neighbourhood

Are you 55+ and looking for fun and affordable fitness programs? Whether you’re a beginner or already physically active, Good Neighbours Active Living Centre has a fitness class for you. Examples are Beginner and Intermediate Barre Fitness, Functional Movement, Interval Training, PACE (People with Arthritis Can Exercise), Beginner and Intermediate Pilates, Tai Chi, Total Body Conditioning, a variety of Yoga classes (Beginner, Intermediate, Chair Yoga, Strength & Yoga, Relax & Restore Yin Yoga), Drums Alive, Let’s Move, Let’s Dance and more! All of our fitness instructors are certified and trained to work with older adults. For more information, call Good Neighbours at 204-669-1710 or visit our website at www.gnalc.ca.

Tips for Staying Hydrated

Even though summer is winding down, it’s still important to make sure you’re drinking enough water to avoid dehydration! Especially for older individuals, dehydration can result in: dizziness, fainting, low blood pressure, and irregular bowel movements.
Most adults should drink at least 8-12 glasses of water per day for adequate hydration. Here are a few tips to ensure you’re drinking enough:
-Drink water with your meals and keep a jug of water on the table for easy access.
-Carry a water bottle with you at school, at work, or when running errands.
-For flavour, try adding lime, cucumber slices, or lemon to your water.

Strategies for Back Health

There are a few simple strategies to avoid back pain. One is to try to get up and walk around every 30 minutes. This avoids something called “tissue creep”, which occurs with prolonged sitting. For light lifting off the ground, consider a “golfer’s lift”. It is the same technique that golfers use to pick up the golf ball from the cup. Notice how they don’t round their back while both feet are on the ground? This may be useful for picking up clothes off the floor. For heavier lifting, the hip hinge (using your hips without flexing your back) is the most proven method for lifting weight off the ground.

The Eyes and Ears Connection

As we age, we’re more susceptible to hearing loss and vision changes. According to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), you’re at greater risk of social isolation and reduced community participation if you have vision loss. The same goes for hearing loss. Having both a vision and a hearing problem can affect your ability to lip-read, which is detrimental to communicating with co-workers, family, and friends. A decreased ability to socialize is linked to a greater risk of dementia. However, Statistics Canada reports that 90 percent of people with hearing loss can improve communication with a properly fitting hearing aid, counselling, or environmental changes.

Returning to Work After an Injury

Motor vehicle accidents (MPI) and workplace injuries (WCB) can be stressful, especially if you end up needing time off from work. It is important not to rush back and risk further injury. Physiotherapists will provide the appropriate hands-on treatments and exercises, while offering safe return-to-work plans with graduated hours and workplace restrictions, if needed. Soft tissue typically takes 3 to 6 weeks to heal, depending on severity, and so functional testing will be done routinely throughout your treatments to ensure that increases in job demands are appropriate and will not flare up symptoms or cause re-injury.