Adapting Mindfulness Meditation for the Older Adult

Excerpt

Mindfulness meditation has been used to address stress and other issues in a wide array of populations and medical conditions. The reason for this widespread use is that mindfulness meditation is a method for working with the mind—and in particular, the thoughts, emotions, and sensations that arise in the mind—that can be adapted to the particular condition or population being targeted. Generally, the basic meditation method—for example, using the breath as the object of focus—can be taught to just about everyone regardless of their medical condition. Likewise, the attitudes cultivated in mindfulness meditation such as nonjudgment, acceptance, patience, curiosity, and compassion are not linked to any particular population or condition. Because of the universal qualities of mindfulness, once the basic mindfulness meditation method is taught, a program can be developed around it to specifically target a condition or population. We have adapted the program for older adults. Here, we present our experience teaching mindfulness meditation to older adults with chronic pain and adaptations we have made to sitting meditation, the body scan, walking meditation, and mindful yoga to make mindfulness most effective for them. These adaptations can be broadly classified into postural adaptations (which are the majority of the adaptations we have made) and sensory adaptations (specifically for hearing impaired older adults). Since we do not work with patients with dementia, who have their own unique needs and challenges, we do not discuss any cognitive adaptations needed for this population. …