Yoga for Dementia Patients: Day 2
I definitely felt a sense of expectation to return to the day care centre for the second time. When I walked in, I found Lucy* (who I was seeing for the first time) in a quandary — yoga or nails? The nail artist was going to leave shortly and Lucy didn’t want to miss that. She didn’t want to miss yoga either. She kept vacillating from one to the other. Seeing her plight, the nail artist decided to join the yoga class as well and Lucy’s face bloomed into a big smile. Mark came in straight towards me and offered his hand. I had indeed parked my car close by and my hands weren’t cold like last time when he didn’t appear pleased thatI had shaken his hand with my rather frosty hands .
The tables had been pushed back as far as they could go and more chairs than the first time had been set out. The word had gotten around and more people wanted to join. There were 3 ladies on wheelchairs, one gentleman on crutches, two people with walkers. Some people walked without help and a few needed help of their carers to walk up to the chairs and sit down. They were 8 more people than the first time
Nita didn’t seem to be in the mood for yoga. She came and stood at the centre of the room, and didn’t want to move from there. The carers tried to make her take a seat but in vain. She refused to make eye contact with anyone. As she was blocking everyone’s view, the staff tried their best to move her out of the way but she wouldn’t budge. I said that I would move my chair and adjust my position so that people could still see me.
‘Sit as comfortably in your chairs as possible, keep your feet slightly apart, your hands resting on your knees and let your eyes gently close’, were my instructions. Most people followed but Rosie, Kate and Tom stared at my face. Mark sat somewhere at the back and I thought he may not have room to stretch his arms out but I was told that Mark liked to do his thing. So I left him where he was comfortable. I am slowly beginning to realise that even if they don’t or can’t do everything, their mere presence in the class will be of benefit to them. While we were doing the initial breathing exercises, Nita kept standing in the centre of the room and as nothing much seemed to be happening, she got bored and left the room.
We started with neck movements and worked our way downwards. The high point of the day was when we sang ‘Row, row, row your boat’, to accompany the boat rowing asana. Lucy and Izzy had the loudest and sweetest voices. The singing enhanced their level of engagement with the yoga session so I plan to include some form of vocalising in all my yoga sessions.
Manny who had done a bit of yoga many many years ago felt really good that he was reviving it. I complimented him a couple of times during the session saying that I could tell that he knew a bit of yoga already and he appeared quite pleased.
After about 30 minutes, I decided to conclude the session although they would have liked to go on. A few hours after I came away, I got an email from the centre coordinator telling me that my yoga sessions were very popular, people were already noticing positive effects and asking if I would consider doing two sessions in a week!
*All names have been changed
