Mobility issues make traveling more challenging but that does not mean you should stop traveling. It may be time to sit down and reassess your travel preferences. Focus on what you want to do and what you can do, then build your trip from there. The key to any successful journey is planning and it is even more important when you have mobility issues. Be sure to start your planning early since many hotels and cruise lines have a limited number of accessible rooms/cabins. A travel agent can help find tours that are suitable for your needs along with fully accessible hotel accommodations and wonderful accessible travel experiences. When you rely on the experience of experts who understand the needs of travelers with mobility issues, you can travel on your terms, at your own pace and have an incredible experience.

Lynne Alexander, CWT Oceanside Travel, www.Oceanside.Travel

Moving to and living in a new place can be very unsettling for anyone. It is even more so for people with memory loss. Here are some signs of a great residence. The living space should be well designed to feel homey and inviting. The decoration, lighting and outdoor landscaping should be thoughtfully curated to be welcoming and consistent to reduce decision fatigue. People need to be treated as unique individuals with particular needs and tastes. Look for a care plan that provides amenities and activities specifically designed to enhance the well-being of people living with memory loss. Activities should be tailored to individual need and cognitive ability. Residents should be encouraged to enhance their rooms with familiar furnishings to remind them they are home, they are unique, and they are still the person they’ve always been.

Lianne Ketcheson, Nanaimo Memory and Complex Care, NanaimoMemoryCare.com

Do you enjoy riding your bicycle but find that the hills are now a little steeper than you remember? Maybe you have given up riding all together because of knee pain or exercise induced asthma. Would you like to recapture the fun of being a kid on a bike again – able to go anywhere? Electric bikes remove many of the roadblocks and challenges that people face with traditional pedal-powered bikes. It is just like a regular bicycle – only better. You can pedal normally (or not), and get assistance up to that steep hill. Take a fun ride down to the beach or up into the mountains in comfort and watch the hills disappear behind you. Electric bicycles offer the same great benefits as traditional bicycles, including cost efficiency, health benefits and connection to a community.

Ruby Berry, Pedego Electric Bikes
PedegoQualicumBeach.ca

Plants produce phytocompounds which are substances that help them thrive and protect themselves from their environment. Many of these compounds are also beneficial in the human diet, where they are referred to as phytonutrients and can make an important contribution to optimized health. When using whole food concentrates from around the world, the diversity of phytonutrients is as unique as the environments from which they originate. Whole foods deliver a plethora of nutrients including phytonutrients, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and healthy fatty acids – things we need and cannot get from diet alone. Using whole food concentrates enables the beneficial effects of the molecular structure of these phytonutrients to remain intact. Data indicates that Functional Foods may be a novel and comprehensive dietary approach for the management of a number of degenerative diseases. Functional Foods are recognised for their health benefits. Typically sacred plants of the original peoples from around the world are Functional Foods.

Dorothy Spencer, Independent Consultant, Zurvita, Facebook.com/ZealBTheChange

A Bowen treatment consists of gentle rolling moves with pauses between moves, giving the body time to benefit from each set and process the information. Bowenwork® balances and stimulates; the restorative process begins once the body is no longer in a state of ‘fight or flight’. By releasing muscle tissue tensions patterns, clients often describe a deep state of relaxation, a feeling of peace and calm, as well as a more positive frame of mind less affected by stress, and they make better decisions. The Bowen technique is appropriate for anyone dealing with pain and injuries, from a newborn to an elderly person. It can help athletes and pregnant women, as well as people with disabilities or chronic conditions. This innovative form of bodywork was first developed in Australia by the late Tom Bowen. His work was verified in 1975 by the Victorian Government, revealing that he saw some 13,000 patients every year!

Andrée Boisvert, Bowenwork® Practitioner, ABHolisticHealth.com

On Vancouver Island and across Canada, small farms are disappearing. This is happening despite the fact that small scale agriculture have an important advantage over large scale farming operations. By producing a diverse variety of crops, small farms create a home for many beneficial organisms, preventing the stress affecting insects that are caused by monocropping. With biodiversity and a strong microbial soil culture, pests are not a problem making the use of pesticides unnecessary. Today, over 90% of the food consumed on Vancouver Island is imported. This is a far cry from the 1950s when 85% of the food consumed here was grown here. By supporting local small scale agriculture and buying local, consumers can help establish stronger food security and a local economy for our communities. Buying local will help ensure an organic, sustainable food supply for many years to come and reduces our carbon footprint.

Brian Prince, Farmer, Prince Acres CSA
PrinceAcresCSA.com