Morning Reflections: The Parks Healthcare Implement Engaging Activity to Relieve Stress

With the social distancing guidelines put in place around the care centers to ensure our residents’ and staff’s safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, our Community Life teams had to use their creativity to ensure everyone’s well-being. These professionals created many activities to engage residents and help them relieve some of the stress that they may have taken on because of the restrictions. Haley Kapheim, Community Life Director at The Parks Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, put in place a weekly activity focused on self-reflection and stress relief called Morning Reflections.

The Morning Reflections activity takes place every Friday morning and “allow residents to reset and live behind any stress or worries they might have taken on during the week,” Haley explained. Early after waking up, Haley gets together with the residents, and for an hour, they exchange positive messages and words. During the activity, residents will tell everyone positive things that they will say to themselves each morning for the following week. In the end, the group does short breathing exercises to prepare them for the day.

Following all safety and social distancing guidelines, the Morning Reflections was the first group activity since the pandemic started. The staff at The Parks Healthcare recognized the need to implement an activity that helps residents manage their stress and reduce feelings of worry. Hailey explained that together they understood “the positive impact that waking up a morning each week and exchange positivity to benefit one another can have on our residents.”

After everyone can share their message, Haley will write them down on a whiteboard, which will stay up in the activities room for the rest of the week. With their quote, they also put their names so they know their goals for the week. “I like that they can see their names and quotes on the whiteboard. They can see they spread a positive message to others,” Haley said.

Each week, the residents get excited to share their positive words and even prepare their messages and plan days. There are some wonderful examples of the messages they share: “Today, I will try to be more active and alert.” “No one is perfect -that’s why pencils have erasers.” This is a creative and engaging way to share positivity with one another. Thank you, Haley, and all our Community Life team for caring for our residents during these challenging times.