Home companions facilitate the benefits of sunshine, fresh air, and light physical activity with safe outdoor plans.
If you live in Bradenton, you must have some appreciation of the outdoors.
We’re not talking camping or hiking; just a little time in the Florida sunshine, seeing the lush plants and ample wildlife, breathing in the gentle breezes, and just overall appreciating our Land of Flowers. It’s beautiful, and it’s free!
In addition to the overall mood boost it provides, time outside also offers a lot of distinct health benefits. Unfortunately, many seniors get stuck in a rut and lose motivation—or just forget—to step outside. In other cases, our older friends and neighbors may frequently go outside, but fail to take adequate safety measures to keep themselves safe.
At Grateful Hearts, our professional home companions also love the Bradenton area and the outdoor beauty it contains. We love encouraging our clients to spend time outside—safely, of course—and accompanying them on small outdoor adventures and relaxing moments together in the fresh air.
The Benefits of Time Outside
No matter your age, stepping outside is good for your health. For seniors especially, who might not otherwise have obligations or a routine that takes them out of their own home, it’s easy to forget the simple pleasure of being in the open air.
When we step outside, we gain a number of benefits for our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing:
- Visual reset: Outside of four walls, our eyes are able to focus on objects much farther away, a practice that releases tension in the eyes (and subsequently the rest of the body).
- Vitamin D: The body needs UV rays from sunlight to produce vitamin D, a compound that’s vital for bone health as well as cognition.
- Light physical activity: Moving the body is one of the healthiest things we can do for ourselves, especially as we get older. Physical activity enhances virtually every physiological function, and there’s no substitute for it.
- Mental engagement: As with so many of the things we do as home companions, accompanying our clients outside gives them new stimulus—from the things they see and interact with to the conversations we have along the way.
- Emotional support: Likewise, the outdoors feed our emotional selves like nothing else. The experience provides new perspectives, spiritual engagement, and a fundamental human joy.
Outside Time Done Safely with a Home Companion
Even keeping all of those benefits in mind, we understand why seniors and their loved ones can be wary of the outdoors. It’s potentially unfamiliar, riddled with fall hazards, and, let’s face it, hot. Bradenton may be beautiful, but the temps (especially in the summer) can be unforgiving.
Home companions facilitate. Healthy outside time done right. That means ensuring proper sun coverage, guidance and support over uneasy terrain, navigation to and from destinations, reminders to take breaks, and, of course, adequate hydration.
Without these failsafes in place, even the most outdoorsy senior may take on unnecessary risks when stepping outside. Home companions don’t just encourage our clients to step outside; we allow for any number of outdoor activities to take place while mitigating the risks that could come along with them. Win-win.
Bradenton Home Companions Keep the Outdoors Accessible
Our senior residents and visitors shouldn’t spend their time only seeing Florida’s beauty through a window. There’s a reason we’re a retirement haven: You never have to bundle up to keep warm and there’s no snow to shovel.
Still, we understand that growing older presents challenges to even the most basic outdoor activities. That’s why, as home companions, we know that taking our clients outside is one of the best tools we have for nurturing their body and their mind. And let’s face it, we love spending time out there, too.