While we are looking forward to affording more social opportunities to residents off-campus, it will be more important than ever for Independent Living residents to communicate with one another and take responsibility for knowing the social patterns of the residents they choose to commune with.
The Rev. Brad Munroe, the Executive Presbyter of the local denominational body of which I am a part (part of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A), has rewritten the Serenity Prayer for the 21st Century.
God, grant me the
serenity to accept that others
may misunderstand, misinterpret, and misjudge
my motives when hearing the narratives I speak,
the courage to listen with grace, humility, and compassion
for other’s motives when hearing the narratives they speak,
and the wisdom to know when to speak and when to listen,
always seeking charity, clarity, and conviction from all.
In a recent article, Brad writes about the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAR) which is a term psychologists use to describe the phenomena of attributing ill motives to others while assuming pure motives for oneself. For example, if someone cuts us off while driving, our first thought might be “What a jerk!” Conversely, consider the last time you were suddenly honked at for drifting into a different lane. You may have had an immediate alibi (e.g. the sun was in my eyes, my kids were distracting me) that explained your behavior based on a situation. You didn’t immediately come to the conclusion that you were an inconsiderate or incompetent driver. Because of the Fundamental Attribution Error, we tend to believe that others do bad things because they are bad people. We’re inclined to ignore situational factors that might have played a role.
A particularly common example is the self-serving bias, which is the tendency to attribute our successes to ourselves, and our failures to others and the situation. You might have noticed yourself making self-serving attributions at times. How often do we judge others harshly while letting ourselves off the hook at the same time by rationalizing our own unethical behavior? The Fundamental Attribution Error is so pervasive that I guarantee you will see it in action over the next week if you keep your eyes open. If we were to add up how many times the FAR is made in the meetings we attend, the gatherings we go to, the conversations with family and friends, we would likely find reasons why our life together needs an injection of “the courage to listen with grace, humility, and compassion.”
Some helpful remedies and things to consider are: watch out when you make generalizations and don’t be too quick to draw conclusions about the character and capabilities of others, assume the good will of the other person, and envision yourself in the shoes of the other person and imagine their challenges. Unquestionably, there are genuine jerks and incompetent people we run across in life. Given our inherent tendency to ascribe negative traits quickly, we will be better off by considering alternate explanations before we jump to conclusions. Those folks that are truly deserving of negative labels will have ample opportunity to validate our suspicions!
Here is the line-up for the month of March—1st Wednesday at 2:00PM (LC) Community Town Hall; 2nd Wednesday at 2:00PM (LC) Community Residents Council; 3rd Wednesday at 2:00PM (PB) Wednesdays Sundaes with Dave; 4th Wednesday at 2:00PM (LC) Community Welcome Coffee with New Residents…. read full article here https://wp.me/p7o8lu-gQf
The holidays are often a time of joyful experiences, but they can also bring about unique health challenges. During the season of giving, it’s still important to take care of yourself; we hope to provide a few tips to stay healthy this winter.
Be Mindful of Medications: With winter cold and flu season upon us, be mindful of over the counter medications, which can have unintended side effects. For example, medications that have sedating or pain mediating effects, such as decongestants and cough syrups, can lead to confusion. Consult your doctor before taking beginning new over the counter medications for cold symptoms, and always being aware of multi-symptom products that treat coughing, sneezing, pain, etc. These medications can contain similar ingredients to medications you are already taking, which can put one at risk of overdose.
Healthy Healing Alternatives: Try alternatives to over the counter cold and allergy medications, such as resting, drinking more fluids, saline nasal sprays, and drinking honey in your tea for coughing.
Winter Workouts: It’s easy to fall away from your usual exercise routine during the holidays, but maintaining an exercise regime for 30 minutes a day helps boost your mood and energy levels. Try to carve out regular time for yourself to prioritize exercise even on busy days.
Seasonal Schedule: Keeping a usual medication and sleep schedule, especially if you are travelling, also boosts your immune system and energy levels. Aim to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day, and be consistent in taking your medications on time. If traveling, have an updated copy of your medication list with you, along with your labeled medications and pill organizer. Before you leave for a trip, make sure you have enough medications for the duration of the trip and for the days after you return, so you won’t need to rush to refill medications.
Holiday Food and Spirits: Maintaining a healthy diet can be challenging during the holidays, but it is important to stick to your regular diet as closely as possible. It’s okay to treat yourself, but eat rich, fatty and sugary foods in moderation and add more vegetables to your holiday plate. This season is also a time when people are more likely to drink alcohol at parties and gatherings. Studies show that regular drinkers have a tendency to over-imbibe during the holidays, while many holiday drinkers who do not drink regularly need to be aware of their lower alcohol tolerance. Be mindful of the risk of confusion and falls when drinking, and ask your physician or pharmacist about how alcohol interacts with your specific medications.
Keep these tips in mind and
enjoy a happy, healthy holiday
season this winter!! *
If you had a hard time finding any of our campus supervisors, managers, directors and executives last Monday, It’s because I had them all, 62 of them to be exact, in the Life Center for a two-hour meeting to kick off a new initiative on leadership development.
It has been a priority of mine to establish a consistent and regular program for developing our leaders. Through ATLAS, a capacity-building grant we received from the Piper Charitable Trust, I am excited to announce that we were able to start this program this year. My vision for this group is to gather as a whole two to three times a year for full-day summits on the various aspects of leadership, while subsets of the group—whether they be by department or management level—will convene throughout the year, working on leadership competencies and management issues.
At the kickoff last Monday, the group had fun learning about each other’s personality types and how that plays into our interactions with each other. The next gathering will be a full-day retreat held in August on two different days to ensure proper management coverage and will focus on the six critical practices for leading a team. I chose that topic because the manager and employee relationship is a key component of staff retention and therefore the heart of our service to you. This program is going to guide campus leaders in how to best motivate and support employees for professional growth while also teaching them how to provide productive feedback to enhance the employee performance.
Additionally, each campus leader will have access to online leadership content on a variety of different topics to support her or his leadership journey. The content is on-demand and offered in a variety of formats and time windows to enhance your leadership, management and supervisory skills.
A leader’s journey is never complete. It is important to me to continually grow as a leader, as well as help those around me do the same. It is also my proud duty as CEO to prepare our organization’s team for the next step in their career, whether it be here at the campus or another company.
I am so excited about what this leadership program will do for all of our leaders and for the campus collectively. I look forward to our summits in August and as always, I would love to hear your feedback, as residents, as you observe our leadership culture evolving.*
I was asked to write my first article while Jon Schilling was on vacation. Since I’m one of the newest full time employees, I thought that it would be best for me to take this opportunity to introduce myself to Beatitudes Campus.
I am a personal fitness instructor, certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine since 1996. I worked as a fitness instructor in various Health Clubs and Medical Clinics. Most of that time I worked at Mountain Shadows Resort and Golf Club in Paradise Valley.
I am a new full time employee, but I am not new to this campus. Many of you know me from my previous positions. I started working here for Beatitudes at Home in July, 2012.
I later became the group instructor in the Functional Fitness class.
I left Beatitudes at Home to work in a physical therapy clinic in 2013 for two years, but I continued to be the instructor for the Functional Fitness class.
From the beginning, I made it clear that I enjoyed working with the people in this environment and that I wanted to work here full time. The average age of my fitness clients, over the course of my 20 year career, has always been 50+ years old.
My new position title is Fitness Specialist. My duties include Fitness Center Attendant, Personal Fitness Instructor and Group Fitness Instructor.
Now that I am here full time, I will channel all of my studies into fitness training for residents 65 years and older. This means that I will find the best ways to address age related physical illnesses and injuries.
I am gathering as much literature on dementia as I can find, so I can create effective workout strategies that best serve residents who may suffer from this terrible disease. I also want to be able to offer useful tips to help friends, relatives and caregivers to communicate with them through troubling times.
The physical therapists who work on campus are wonderful! I have a good relationship with them. Residents who have suffered from an illness or injury that work with the campus therapists may want to extend their physical rehabilitation long after they have been discharged. I can do one on one fitness sessions to extend the physical therapist’s treatment strategies within my limitations as a Certified Fitness Trainer. It has been three months since I have been a full time employee on Campus. I DO NOT need any more time to analyze my decision to take this position. I already concluded that I made the BEST decision to join this team.
I feel very comfortable with the staff and the residents. I enjoy getting opportunities to share laughs with everyone, especially when I “goof up” during my fitness classes.
If I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you yet, please stop me in the hallways, come to one of my fitness classes or stop by the Fitness Center. I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO IT!
Thanksgiving is fast upon us and this year I will be reflecting upon the “unbearable goodness of being alive.” To give thanks to God, to give thanks to others—these are the things that keep us human.
February is Black History Month and Beatitudes Campus provided the 3rd Annual Black History Month Program with great flair and panache. On Thursday, February 18th, this year’s event centered on a music festival theme and was a spectacular gathering of residents, staff, and guests. The program featured piano playing, singing, readings, and dancing. Music history facts were shared by the readers and touched on topics such as how:
The program also paid tribute to B.B. King, an African American blues musician, who was named “The King of Blues” during his career and who believed that “Music was the way to the heart” with his lady guitar! It was an amazing celebration of music!
As with any program of this magnitude, many thank you’s must be shared. It could not have been possible without the participation of Beatitudes Campus residents Louis Smith, Barbara Beerling, Doris Lyke and Dosia Carlson who highlighted the show with singing and playing the piano! Shirley Kendrick and Ella Adams (members of the Campus Housekeeping Department) showed up and cleaned the dance floor putting on an amazing performance of “Baby Love” by the Supremes with Chris Mason (Life Enrichment). I must also give a shout out to the staff in the Health Care Center and Housekeeping Departments that graced the dance floor in a praise dance performance, shared quote filled readings, and so much more!
Special thanks must be given to Josie Gay (Staffing Coordinator, Health Care Center, 17 year Campus employee) and Chris Mason (Life Enrichment Specialist, Health Care Center, 9 month Campus employee and a firecracker recruit from Wisconsin last spring). Josie was the original catalyst behind the Black History Month program three years ago and just when we thought her energy and passion couldn’t be matched, she teamed up with Chris. These ladies tirelessly planned, encouraged, practiced and executed an educational and fun event in addition to their daily work here at the Campus. Co-planner Chris Mason stated, “We just want to thank everyone who participated, especially our audience, we couldn’t have asked for a more involved and encouraging crowd.” Our congratulations also go out to, Louise McCarthy and Bob Mulligan, who each won a raffle prize of an amazing gift basket full of unique items put together by the Black History Committee. Enjoy!
If you missed the show, never fear, video clips will be available on the Community Website soon. I also encourage you to get in touch with Josie (@jgay) or Chris (@cmason) if you have an interest in helping with the 4th Annual Black History Program in 2017. As they say, “There’s no business like show business!” Have a wonderful week! *
