10 Helpful Time for Self care during the holiday season

Excerpt of poetry from the Express Yourself: Writing as a tool to cope and thrive as a caregiver class

November is National Family Caregivers Month! It is a time to honor the millions of caregivers/care partners around the world who provide care to aging parents, ill spouses or other loved ones who are living life with a health condition.

Throughout the month of September, over 200 people joined together in a global virtual choir celebration marking the 15th anniversary of the Parkinson Voice Project (PVP).

Hi, I’m Dan Dumsha and I’m the director of Improv for Work & Wellness at Tightrope Theatre in Vancouver. Since the pandemic started, I’ve led more than 50 virtual improv workshops — for Public Speaking, Brain Health, Dementia & Alzheimer’s, and for Parkinson’s Disease. My biggest take away is that these workshops build CONNECTION. I believe meaningful connection is the central benefit of improv… for individuals, for teams, for everybody.

Since launching last year, we’ve provided over 200 hours of free classes involving over 450 participants in over 20 different types of activities!

Get down to some fall reading with a little help from our list!

A wrap up of the 2020 Brain Wellness Summer Challenge!

Vanessa Barron, yoga instructor with the BC Brain Wellness Program, shares her personal journey of why yoga has become so important to her.

We talk to Roberta Beiser, a BC Brain Wellness participant who will be matching funds raised for our Summer Challenge! To learn more about the challenge and to register, please click HERE.

The Summer Brain Wellness Challenge is here, so it’s time to make the summer of 2020 count for brain wellness! Participate in an activity from each category every week until September 6 to complete the challenge! Sign up here.

July 24th is International Self-Care Day, an annual opportunity to put a spotlight on self-care! This day was initiated back in 2011 and takes place every year on July 24th to demonstrate the importance of employing self-care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24/7).

An Open Talk Café is an open, judgement-free space intended to get people together to engage in friendly conversations and foster connections. The concept of an Open Talk Café was created by the wonderful organization, Beyond the Conversation. The ultimate goal of an Open Talk Café is to help lessen and ease the burden of social isolation and loneliness so many of us face by fostering quality connections and eventually developing friendships that can be taken beyond the Open Talk Café space. The BC Brain Wellness Program developed it’s very own (virtual) Open Talk Café that launched during the Spring Program.

Saying this pandemic has been full of challenges is like saying the desert is dry. But for many of us, whether we realized it or not, it’s also cultivated some positive lifestyle shifts born out of necessity and stillness.

The BC Brain Wellness Team has put their heads together to offer the wellness community our favorite books, talks, podcasts and wellness activities just in time for summer!

As I write these words on a Friday afternoon, my 20 year old son is cleaning the kitchen for me while listening to the electronic dance music which motivates him. I accept it as a fair trade since some chores are being attended to even though his music choices are as diverse as they can be from my own. And in spite of myself, I’m grooving a bit to the beat. That’s the beauty of music...it is both personal and universal.

What challenges you? Many people (myself included) get comfortable with a routine, with an exercise program, with rhythms of life. As soon as we are asked to do something different or to try something new or challenging, we tend to shy away and avoid it. Or maybe that’s just me!

When we're doing art, why are we so intimidated by a blank canvas? As a former art teacher and as a fledgling artist myself, there's nothing quite as daunting as sitting in front of a blank canvas no matter how big or small it is.

I am writing this blog on April 22, Earth Day, over 6 weeks since the COVID-19 quarantine began. Tonight’s news celebrated Earth Day: lockdown and social isolation have had a positive impact on the planet with a decrease in emissions of greenhouse gasses. We are breathing cleaner air. But we know the human toll and the psychological impact of COVID-19 has been immense. We are all experiencing a tsunami of emotions day after day. Familiar landmarks we once relied on to show us the way are gone. Validation of experiences brings welcome relief. I will share some gems of wisdom I have discovered, with thanks to the internet. Selected articles, poems, talks and videos have helped me cope with the huge life transitions. One can say…