The pandemic has forced people to relook at their lifestyles and remodel it towards holistic living. And wellness centres embody the principles of holistic living much better than any other medium. Springing from eastern medicine, wellness has now evolved to have a multidimensional approach. Earlier such centres would focus on Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine focusing on the diet, lifestyle and environmental factors to treat people and rejuvenate their lives and prevent any nasty condition that develops due to the infirmities of any of these factors. Now the centres have evolved as Centres for Integrative Medicine combining the best of western medicine and eastern principles. It is intriguing to think why wellness centres have gained popularity.
Other than the fact that people have come to realize the fact that maintaining healthier lifestyles will help them get a hold of their body and mind, exorbitant costs of medical and healthcare is the biggest driving factor. People, especially seniors, know for a fact now that they may avoid any illness that may damage their body as well as their finances using the techniques taught at the Primary Wellness Center for senior citizens weekly sessions at their Miami location.
In this article we will look at the various lessons taught at wellness centres and what are their benefits.
Diet
Diet forms the basis of every programme at a wellness centre. In fact, if you are looking to improve any area of your life, it does well to start from your diet. In science it is taught that the best diet is the balanced diet, where you take the recommended portion of every nutrient in your food. At the wellness centre, you may be given a diet chart which is customised as per your requirement keeping various factors such as health condition, age and your preferences in mind.
In an eastern setting you will be given additional condiments such as a chyavanprash which is an herbal concoction of various roots, plant parts, fruits and nuts blended to provide a boost of micronutrients to the body. You may also be provided with a superfood trail mix, herbal drops and other products that you can consume so as to gain the maximum benefits of their nutrients. These products are designed following ancient texts that focused on holistic development and nourishment of an individual.
Aquatic Aerobics
Aquatic Aerobics are extremely popular with seniors due to their low impact but effective workouts. An instructor stands at the edge of the pool guiding you to carry out warm-ups, strength training and cardio exercises. The low impact helps the seniors who may be already suffering from bad knees and joint pains. Some of the activities that one does in aquatic aerobics are: water walking, bicep curls, leg lifts and kickboard moves. Swimming is usually not a part of the workout as it requires much more stamina. All these exercises are carried out at the shallow end of the swimming pool. Some of the benefits are:
- It improves the functioning of your core muscles
- It improves your flexibility
- The resistance of water helps in building the strength of various body parts
- The buoyancy of water makes it a low impact workout
- Water aerobics are an excellent cardio workout.
Meditation
Meditation is perhaps the most popular activity associated with wellness centres and rightly so as meditation has tons of proven benefits for the elderly. The concept of meditation relies heavily on the balance between various realism of the mind which is emotional, mental, physical and functional. Therefore, meditation practices are liberally prescribed at every Primary Care Wellness Center location. A host of benefits await the practitioner of meditation such as:
- Reduction in stress levels-cortisol and improvement in serotonin levels
- Calms down anxious demeanour
- Increased self and body awareness
- Improves cognitive brain functions as well as sleep and memory.
- Decreased hypertension
- Improvement in immunity
Breathing exercises
Ageing affects the breathing and pulmonary system adversely. Therefore, breathing exercises are needed to bring back the rhythm and depth in breathing. As individuals age, the breathing becomes shallow and gets affected by various physiological processes. Breathing exercises help bring back the attention to breathing and improve the functioning of all the organs associated with it.
Given the immense benefits of wellness programs, seniors must not hesitate to enrol in one and improve the quality of their lives dramatically.