Blog: Mindfulness and Dementia
A blog on World Mental Health Day 2024 for people living with dementia, unpaid carers, and care professionals. Written in collaboration with Martha Pollard, researcher, compassion-focussed counsellor and mindfulness teacher. As well as this, Martha and her siblings are carers for a family member living with dementia.
The author and world-renowned mindfulness teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn says:
“The core invitation of mindfulness is for you to befriend yourself.”
In this blog, we explore what it means to befriend yourself and how mindfulness can help you cultivate self-compassion and improve your mental health and well-being. Whether you're living with dementia, an unpaid carer, or a care professional, we will share practical ways to learn and integrate mindfulness into your daily routine.
Research continues to show that mindfulness is effective in reducing stress. Mindfulness can help people to:
- Be kinder to themselves and others
- Be less reactive and manage emotions like anger or resentment
- Improve interactions with others by being more attentive and compassionate
- Experience a calmer mind
- Reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a practice of deliberately bringing our attention to the present moment. By paying attention to our senses, thoughts, and emotions without judgment, we can calm our minds and avoid being overwhelmed by worries about the past or future. In this way, mindfulness can us help us be kinder to ourselves. This self-kindness helps us to "befriend" ourselves.
Focusing on our senses can also help to anchor ourselves in the present moment. This is because the body is always in the present. Our bodies cannot travel to the past or the future like our minds can.
If You Are Living with Dementia
Emerging evidence shows that sensory-based mindfulness can be beneficial for people with dementia, enhancing positive emotions and improving daily life. Sensory activities might include smelling flowers, sipping tea, or enjoying your favourite food. Other possibilities could include singing, dancing, painting, walking, or swimming, all of which anchor you in the present through sensory experiences.
Mindfulness may also help increase your enjoyment of life and help you feel calmer when distressed. It can also help to reduce anxiety and sadness, contributing to an overall sense of well-being.
Watch this video about the Time to Dance program for people with dementia.
If You Are an Unpaid Carer
Practicing mindfulness may seem out of reach when you are caring for someone else. There are, however, some very short practices that can fit into your day. A brief senses-based 5-4-3-2-1 grounding practice for anxiety can be helpful for calming us down in the everyday.
Watch this short video to try the practice.
Learning mindfulness skills can help decrease the impact on your daily stresses. Practicing mindfulness can also help with:
- Decreasing anxiety, stress and depression
- Increased compassion for yourself and others
- Improved mental well-being, health and quality of life
If You Are a Care Professional
Research from the Oxford Mindfulness Foundation found that care staff often experience emotional overload, anxiety and stress. However, mindfulness training helped reduce stress and improve well-being for those working in care homes and community care. Many staff members found that mindfulness also helped them support people with dementia more effectively.
By practicing mindfulness, you can improve your own well-being and pass the benefits on to the people you care for. This creates a ripple effect, enhancing the emotional environment for everyone involved.
Watch this video of a practice called ‘touch the breath’ which, just like the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise, you can do anytime you would like to find moments of calm.
Mindfulness Resources
You can find more information from Peer 2 Peer Mindfulness, a charity based in the Scottish Borders, that is one of the UK finalists in the upcoming Innovations in Mindfulness Awards 2024. The charity provides free public mindfulness courses to remove financial barriers to accessing training and has developed and provided mindfulness courses for care home staff, unpaid carers, and people living with dementia.
If you’re interested in trying mindfulness exercises on your own, Mind’s website offers practical exercises and tips for getting started.
Exploring guided mindfulness can be a helpful way to get started, especially if you’re new to the practice. The Mindfulness Association has free, twice daily online guided practices that are open to all. Both Mindfulness Scotland and the Mindfulness Toolkit have free guided audio exercises available via their websites.
Your local carer centre or support groups may also provide connections to mindfulness programs in your area.
If you require any further information, please contact our About Dementia team at aboutdementia@agescotland.org.uk.
About Martha Pollard
Martha Pollard is a qualified compassion-focused counsellor and mindfulness teacher, as well as a trustee and tutor at Peer 2 Peer Mindfulness. She has a background in psychology, public health, and community care, with 10 years of experience supporting carers and people living with dementia. She is currently pursuing a PhD focused on caring and dementia, supervised by the Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre, the Edinburgh Centre for Research on the Experience of Dementia, and the University of Edinburgh Chaplaincy. Martha and her siblings are carers for a family member living with dementia.
