5 Ways to Get Excited about your Job

Sometimes there are days where it feels like we’re going through the motions. Wake up, go to work, come home, make dinner, maybe watch TV, go to bed and do it all over again. A change of mindset may be all it takes to get excited about your work day. Here are five easy ways to overcome the monotony.

Start Your Day with Gratitude

Practicing gratitude can have a positive effect on our mental health and overall wellbeing. First thing in the morning after you wake up, think of three things you are thankful for. Experts who start each day with a grateful mindset believe recalling people, happy experiences or positive events allow you to also feel the good emotions that come along with those things.

Remember Your Passion

It’s worth reflecting on what drew you to this line of work in the first place. Maybe it was because you wanted to help people and change lives. If you’ve been in the same job field for many years, it’s easy to lose sight of this. Remembering why you chose this career can help get you excited about your job and give you a new sense of purpose.

Add Value

Think about the value you add to your company. What are you really good at? What is it that you do that no one else does? Consider all the ways that you contribute to your organization and take pride in that. While we all have parts of our jobs that aren’t our favorite, instead, focus on what you do great and the parts that you enjoy.

Share those skills. Teaching or mentoring coworkers can give you a confidence boost in your abilities and the potential to support others.

Try Something New

Consider taking on a new project or learning a new skill at work. It will not only help build your resume and make you more invaluable in your job, but it can also combat any feelings of boredom you may be experiencing at work.

Have Something to Look Forward To

For some people, the excitement of an upcoming vacation or fun activity is almost as fun as the actual event itself. Chase that feeling every day on a smaller scale. The anticipation of something to look forward to, like lunch with a coworker, may be all it takes to motivate you to get through the day.

About Advena Living

At Advena Living, we strive to be a company where people choose to work. We take pride in shaping our organizational culture to support and appreciate all employees. At our core, we believe every person who works and lives in our communities has value.

We are always looking for dedicated people to join and grow with our team. Those individuals should be passionate and committed to providing quality care and enriching the lives of all community members.

Advena Living offers long-term care, skilled nursing and assisted living services at multiple locations in Kansas.

Lonely Hearts Club: Socially Isolated Older Women at Risk for Heart Disease

Harry Nilsson sang about one being the loneliest number. And he wasn’t the only one. While being alone may not be good for the proverbial heart, it also could have effects on cardiovascular health.

A new study finds being socially isolated and having feelings of loneliness may increase the risk of heart disease in older women.

The recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) looked at nearly 58,000 women 65 years and older over the course of eight years. None of the participants in the study had a history of heart disease.

It found women who had both greater social isolation and higher level of loneliness had a 13% to 27% higher risk of cardiovascular disease compared to women who were more social and less isolated.

Changes in Life

The study points out that life changes in this age group, like retirement and loss of friends and family, only add to the risk of social isolation and loneliness. The current pandemic where people are continuing to socially distance doesn’t do much to curb the problem.

Although this study focuses on older women, isolation and loneliness can affect elderly men as well. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) found more than 30% of older adults report feeling lonely and 25% report feeling isolated.

Moving into a Community

Moving into a long-term care or assisted living community can help combat feelings of loneliness and isolation. Staff at our Advena Living communities encourage socialization and engagement in a variety of activities. Our social services directors hold regular resident council meetings and encourage feedback, so they can plan events and activities that community members want to do. Sharing a meal or going for a stroll with your new neighbors can also help provide a much-needed social outlet.

About Advena Living

Advena Living communities offer long-term care, skilled nursing and assisted living services at multiple locations in Kansas. We are dedicated to the vision that each person has value, and we should honor their individual choices. When a person moves into one of our Advena Living communities, our goal is to welcome them and their family as new members of our extended family. We work hard to accommodate what they want their schedule to be and what choice they want to make.

See the Light: Treating SAD with Light Therapy

This time of year, you may be a little moodier, have a lack of energy, or feel disconnected from others. You’re not alone. Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD is a common type of depression that happens around the winter months. According to the Mayo Clinic, other symptoms can include irritability, difficulty concentrating, weight gain, sleeping too much and feeling hopeless. While there isn’t a specific way to prevent SAD, an easy and inexpensive way to manage symptoms is with light therapy.


Using Light Therapy to Treat SAD

Phototherapy or light therapy is an effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder.

Dr. Craig Sawchuk, a Mayo Clinic psychologist, says light therapy affects brain chemicals that are linked to mood and sleep by giving off a light that is similar to natural outdoor light. He recommends using a 10,000-lux light box or lamp for 20 minutes within an hour of waking up.

“You don’t have to stare directly at the light, but you want to keep your eyes open,” suggests Dr. Sawchuk. He recommends people eat breakfast or read the paper near the light.

 

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Talk to your doctor if you are feeling the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder and want to consider phototherapy. In most cases, SAD symptoms often fade around spring or summer.

At Advena Living, we know how difficult these cold winter months can be. We encourage our community members to get involved with social activities and get some vitamin D when the weather permits.

 

About Advena Living

Advena Living communities offer long-term care, skilled nursing and assisted living services at multiple locations in Kansas. We are dedicated to the vision that each person has value, and we should honor their individual choices. Even in a heavily regulated environment, Advena Living understands the importance of making home a real thing. We do this through the pursuit of person-centered care, the preservation of autonomy, and participative decision-making throughout the organization.

When a person moves into one of our Advena Living communities, our goal is to welcome them and their family as new members of our extended family. We work hard to accommodate what they want their schedule to be and what choice they want to make.

New Year, New Job: Advena Living is Hosting a Job Fair

Ready to kick off 2022 with a new job?  Advena Living is hiring, and we are looking for motivated candidates like you!

Advena Living strives to be a place where people chose to live and work by supporting our employees and staying true to our values. We believe in providing high quality care to people of all walks of life. And we are interested in bringing on team members who are equally as excited to make a different and provide the best care possible.

Job Fair Information

We’re holding a job fair to hire for direct care positions including RN, LPN, CNA and CMA at our three Wichita area locations:

Stop by and visit us at our job fair on Thursday, January 27, 2022 at the Holiday Inn Express on 1236 S. Dugan Rd in Wichita by the airport. We’ll be there all day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

If you can’t attend the job fair in person, join us virtually:
Meeting ID: 833 9955 4331
Passcode: NewJob!

Full-time employees receive health insurance and a 401(k), as well as PTO, paid holidays, and insurance options for life, dental and vision. Generous sign-on bonuses are being offered for all positions.

If this sounds like the new job you’ve been waiting for, stop by our job fair. For more information on the positions or the event, contact Jamie at Advena Living (785) 789-4750.

About Advena Living

Advena Living offers skilled nursing, long-term care and rehab at all of our seven communities. Some communities also provide independent and assisted living. Our name, Advena, means “newcomer” in Latin. We welcome all newcomers to our communities— whether a new community member needs extra care and a comfortable environment, or an employee wants to find fulfillment in their careers.

Making Mondays Matter: Health Habits That Stick

The start of the new year is often filled with optimism. Resolutions are made and one-word intentions are set for who we want to become, what we hope to achieve, and what we need to change. For many people, those goals are centered around improving their health.

Still at the top of the resolutions list are exercising more, eating healthier or losing weight, and quitting smoking, according to various studies. The problem is that many people don’t follow through on their New Year’s resolutions. A report from U.S. News & World Report found that 80% of resolutions fail. Most are abandoned as early as the middle of February.

As we try to make choices to improve our health, it can be discouraging when we fail. But we need to give ourselves grace and the option to start over. The Monday Campaign, in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, started a public health initiative for a “fresh start” Monday mindset. Their research showed people are most open to positive change at the start of the week, and view Mondays as a time to re-set.

In the full report, the study’s authors Jillian Fry, MPH and Roni Neff, PhD, MS seek to “reframe Monday as a positive experience and an opportunity to begin the week with a new perspective.” In fact, during their research, they found that more than half of the 1,500 adults they surveyed viewed Monday as a day to “get their act together or a day for a fresh start.” Almost half of those surveyed said they would start a diet or new exercise program on a Monday.

The Healthy Monday Refresh proposes that by setting intentions in the beginning of the week we can develop lasting habits over time. The steps to making it happen couldn’t be easier: set an intention, pick an action, and make it happen. And remember, if at first you don’t succeed, there’s always next Monday.

At Advena Living, we welcome individuals to our community who are looking to make positive changes for their overall health and wellbeing Monday and every other day of the week– whether it’s a short-term rehab stay to get your strength back after surgery, or it’s a move to an assisted living facility or nursing home because you need a little extra help. By following a person-centered care philosophy, we respect and accommodate community member’s individual choices, while trying to make them feel at home. Our team values your input as we develop specific health plans to get you on the right track.

Calming Music at Bedtime: Improving Sleep for Older Adults

Ask any parent or grandparent how to put a fussy baby to sleep, and they’ll tell you to play or sing a lullaby. The soft, lilting notes of a lullaby have long been known for putting babies and children fast asleep. What many didn’t realize until recently is that calming music can be just as effective for sleep problems among older adults.

According to HealthinAging.org, as many as 40 percent of older adults experience insomnia, and up to 70 percent have some type of sleep problem – like trouble falling to sleep, waking up too early, or waking up several times during the night. Sleep problems are nothing to yawn at either. Poor sleep can lead to falls, accidents, memory problems, depression, or just plain feeling irritable the next day.

Prescription and over-the-counter sleep aids have their own list of side-effects, so a prescription for calming music as the solution to sleep problems might be just what the doctor orders.

The study defines calming music as music with a “slow tempo of 60 to 80 beats per minute and a smooth melody.” Rhythmic music that is faster and louder is not as helpful, studies showed. The researchers believe calming music lowers levels of stress and anxiety, slows heart rate and breathing, and lowers blood pressure.

Listening to music for longer than four weeks, apparently, is more effective for improving sleep quality than shorter efforts – so if it doesn’t work the first time, keep playing the music for 30 minutes or more each night for at least a month.

At Advena Living, we love improving the lives of the people who are part of our assisted living, long-term care and skilled nursing communities. There are all sorts of cutting-edge medical interventions for health issues that arise, but there are also simple little techniques that can make people’s lives better. We believe in the power of a calming environment, not just in a musical sense, but also in the look, feel and freedom we provide our community members. Reach out to us today for assistance with any questions you have or problems you’d like to discuss, including sleep issues.

About Advena Living

Advena, which is Latin for newcomer, is built on welcoming newcomers to our communities and creating a culture that means “home” to them. Because our community members are considered part of our extended family, we give them the flexibility and freedom to live the life they want, while providing the person-centered care they need. Your life, your choice – welcome home.

Reading the Signs – and Understanding Your Options for Memory Care

Memory issues are common with aging. How many of us have searched the house in a frenzy looking for reading glasses perched on our heads – or used the flashlight on a phone to search beneath the couch for that very phone?

That’s why it’s so important to be able to recognize when memory glitches might be more than just the normal, everyday lapses we all experience. Once you’ve accepted that Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia is at play, researching what the options are for safe, affordable memory care can seem an overwhelming task.

As noted in this article from U.S. News, here are five signs that it’s time to consider memory care options:

  1. Changes in behavior
  2. Confusion and disorientation that imperil physical safety
  3. A decline in physical health
  4. A caregiver’s deterioration
  5. Incontinence

There are many considerations to help determine whether memory issues can best be supported through in-home care, assisted living, specialized memory care, long-term nursing home care – or a combination of care settings and services therein.

At Advena Living, we can accommodate individuals with dementia or Alzheimer’s at any of our communities. We welcome new community members who may be experiencing escalating memory loss and need a safe, comfortable home with extra cognitive support. Reach out to us today and we can be part of the decision-making process.

About Advena Living

Advena, which is Latin for newcomer, is built on welcoming newcomers to our communities and creating a culture that means “home” to them. Because our community members are considered part of our extended family, we give them the flexibility and freedom to live the life they want, while providing the person-centered care they need. Your life, your choice – welcome home.

“A Happy Surprise” – New Research Shows Socializing Improves Cognition for Older Adults

Millions of Americans have Alzheimer’s disease – and since the COVID-19 pandemic began, socialization has decreased for many, which is known to have adverse effects.

That’s why Ruixue Zhaoyang, assistant research professor of the Center for Healthy Aging at Penn State, called it “a happy surprise” when his team concluded that cognitive abilities improve for days following joyful social interaction in adults aged 70-90. According to Zhaoyang:

“Our study is one of the first to show that [having] social interactions on one day can immediately affect your cognitive performance that same day and also on the following days. The fact that we found that the cognitive benefits of having pleasant social interactions could manifest over such a short time period was a happy surprise and could be a promising area for future intervention studies.”

At Advena Living, we care deeply about making sure our community members experience joy in their lives every day. In addition to excellence in memory care and nursing home/long-term care, we provide healthy and happy social interaction, and we welcome loved ones to come do the same.

You can read about the Penn State study here.

About Advena Living

Advena, which is Latin for newcomer, is built on welcoming newcomers to our communities and creating a culture that means “home” to them. Because our community members are considered part of our extended family, we give them the flexibility and freedom to live the life they want, while providing the person-centered care they need. Your life, your choice – welcome home.

Alzheimer’s & Activities: Safely Assisting with Normalcy

Maybe you grew up watching your father read the newspaper every morning with his cup of coffee. Now, with Alzheimer’s disease, he may not be able to fully comprehend what he reads – but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop offering him a newspaper each morning. The ritual of normalcy may be more important than how much information he absorbs from the news.

Of course, for safety reasons, modifications may be necessary for other types of favorite activities enjoyed before the onset of dementia. The onset of Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia doesn’t have to bring an end to doing what we love. They simply require modifications, especially as the disease progresses. The Alzheimer’s Association provides some helpful tips on choosing and modifying activities for people with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.

Expertise in dementia is something our memory care experts at Advena Living bring to the table every day. In our Advena Living Communities, individualized living is the standard we hold – and honoring a person’s freedom of choice is our goal. We are advocates for making care more compassionate and intentional – supporting what brings individuals joy.  Whether at home with you or at home with us, it is important to keep your loved one involved in doing what they love, at whatever level they are capable.

About Advena Living

Advena, which is Latin for newcomer, is built on welcoming newcomers to our communities and creating a culture that means “home” to them. Because our community members are considered part of our extended family, we give them the flexibility and freedom to live the life they want, while providing the person-centered care they need. Your life, your choice – welcome home.

Two older adults playing with hoolahoops - long and happy life

Finding Your Superpowers: Nine Keys to a Long & Happy Life

Last month, we introduced you to the concept of the Blue Zones lifestyle and its patented blueprint for happiness. Through their blue zone research, experts were able to extract nine lifestyle habits helping so many in “blue zone” populations reach the age of 100 with health and happiness. Dan Buettner of National Geographic, who helped spearhead this research, calls them the Power 9.

Think of the Power 9 as your very own superpowers, and find ways to fold them into your lifestyle or your loved one’s lifestyle:

  1. Move – and do it in ways that blend naturally into your lifestyle and are not stressful (e.g., gardening, dancing, hiking, etc.)
  2. Find purpose
  3. Downshift and de-stress
  4. Eat less meat and more plants – especially beans (yes, the musical fruit)
  5. 80/20 rule – stop eating before you’re full (stop yourself at maybe 80% full) and try to stop eating after an early dinner
  6. Have wine with that dinner (and at Advena you can)
  7. Belong to a faith community – it’s been consistently proven to add years to your life
  8. Put your loved ones first – invest in your children, love your partner for a lifetime, remain involved in the lives of your elders
  9. Find your right tribe – choosing the right people to surround yourself with can be critical. Bad habits are contagious, but so are good ones

At Advena, we want you to live long – and live well. Making a decision to choose Advena for yourself or a loved one is an easy way to achieve many of the goals on Buettner’s Power 9 list. Opportunities to live the Power 9 are all here for you and your family.

Developing a strategy for living longer and living well is something all of us at Advena hold as our first priority. That’s why we’re always doing our homework in creating our living communities to keep our residents healthy – for a long time to come. Practice makes perfect, and we’d like to think we’ve developed a few superpowers of our own.

You can read more on Buettner’s Blue Zones website for details about diet, lifestyle and all the other details Buettner’s team identified as conducive to living the Blue Zone life.