music therapy

This Week’s Good News!

Posted on Updated on

Leave it to Reno, Nevada to figure out how to use dance to benefit those with cognitive impairment. This story spotlights a wonderful dance club that is making a grand impact on the lives of those with dementia and their loved ones.

Welcome to the year 2015!

Posted on Updated on

2015 New Years

If you’re like me, you’re wondering how another year has slipped by so quickly.  I’m sure there were a few of the 52 weeks that seemed to slog by, but all in all we can now look back and marvel at what we accomplished, or what others accomplished in our stead, during the past 365 days.

An accomplishment with which I’m happy is having authored this blog for the past three and a half years.  I’ve provided this blog for you, but I’ve also provided it for me because I truly enjoy having the opportunity to share my experiences and my viewpoints; I hope in the process that I have encouraged, helped, and entertained you.  From the start of Baby Boomers and More in 2011 to the end of 2014, I posted 520 articles.  I’d be a very happy blogger if the quality of those articles surpassed the quantity because if I’m just talking into thin air without benefit to others, its hardly worth the space my blog occupies.

Here are links to the five most visited articles in the year 2014 based on WordPress statistics:
Read the rest of this entry »

Fine tune your “boogie” for your later years

Posted on

Please Santa, let me be the smiling lady that gets up and dances.

(photo courtesy of Pixabay)
(photo courtesy of Pixabay)

Are you preparing right now to never lose your boogie, no matter your age?  I am.  The attached article is a delightful story of how music affects the elderly – whether cognitively impaired or not.

The Alive Inside program proved how beneficial music therapy is to those whose world has diminished and whose communication and connection with others has been cut off.  Regardless of the music’s era, regardless of the generation listening to it, everyone can harken back to long-ago memories just by listening to familiar tunes that meant something to us then, and that mean something to us now.

Retaining ones essence and ones individuality goes far towards announcing to the world, “I’m still here; I’ve still got it; I’m still vital.”  As expressed in the article I’ve shared from a fellow blogger, I hope I will indeed be the smiling lady that gets up and dances, and I hope you’ll join me on the dance floor.

Music therapy: a key to unlocking the diseased brain.

Posted on

Cab Calloway (1933?)
Cab Calloway still has a musical impact to this day! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Alzheimer’s and other dementia don’t hold a candle to the positive effect music has on its victims.  The attached video, a brief portion from the documentary, Alive Inside, is entitled: “Music and Memory, an old man’s reaction to hearing ‘his’ music.”  It illustrates so beautifully how music can unlock the brain that is addled by memory loss resultant from injury or disease.

I hope Henry’s story, and his dramatic transformation,  encourage you.