What if Dementia’s root cause is Emotional / Mental / Spiritual?

When you consider dis-ease, do you wonder if your past and current emotional, mental, and spiritual states may be playing a part in your physical illness? For over 40 years I have been exploring the mind/body connection to heal my own addictions like co-dependency, smoking, alcohol abuse and afflictions of the soul like anger, self-pity, and fear. With a cancer diagnosis, I uncovered the suppressed grief and anger over the death of my brother, Jimmy who was three and I was seven. Because I was unable to process these emotions at the time, they got stored in my body and were contributing to the cancer.

In exploring how to heal, I found resources like Creative Approaches to Grief ?which helped me accept and allow the emotions to flow. As they were felt, released, a sense of wholeness was restored.

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk states: “Understanding how overwhelming experiences affect our innermost sensations and our relationship to our physical reality--the core of who we are. Trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. Imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present.”

During my brief research, I found Eloisa Ramos, who also wonders if the cause of Alzheimer's could be at an emotional/mind/spiritual level. She was a caregiver for 14 years for her mother who had Alzheimer's.

“I saw firsthand how difficult it was for my mother to express her emotions, and noticed that her "strategy" for dealing with painful events in her life was to "bury them" and do her best to forget them. She also held strong disempowering beliefs.”

Eloisa offers you a way to share your emotional, mental, and spiritual belief patterns of your loved ones with Alzheimer's on her website.”

Because of my personal healing experience, I take this same approach to any dis-ease. My father’s dementia provided many new challenges for our family in the unknown world of dementia caregiving. My father’s personality changed as the dis-ease progressed. He developed anxiety, was aggressive at times and had inappropriate behaviors.

As my mother, six siblings and I were trying to make sense of what to do, our past dysfunctional ways of interaction were heightened.

Hence, my daily self-care practices became critical for me to stay centered and loving.

1.????Set boundaries. I made decisions on how I wanted to relate to my father as the illness progressed. This also meant I needed to honor what my siblings were choosing to do relative to his care and engagement.

2.????Expand my ability to love and I started with myself. Oftentimes our dealings left me confused, feeling helpless, and made my head and my heart hurt. The uncertainties of my family’s behavior triggered my insecurities. Practicing the Meditative Movements helped me process many childhood hurts and fears. Other daily care activities included meditation, breathing exercises, walking in nature, journaling, practicing gratitude, reading / listening to uplifting messages and music.

3.????Communicate my needs, desires and listen to others with compassion.

My life was enriched from this experience, and I say, “Thank you” to my mother, siblings, and extended family for their contributions. A special shoutout to all the Activity Professionals and staff at my dad's care facility. They gave me comfort in knowing that his basic needs were being met and relieved the burden of the daily care from our family.

?You are invited to participate in any of our upcoming June Meditative Movement events. We are providing self-care meditations for caregivers and individuals with a dementia diagnosis so they can be healthier, happier and feel whole. Our intent is to foster hope and encouragement along your journey.