“What is your hope?”  “What gives you ability to keep on keeping on,
despite knowing what the future holds?”

Tru here.  MY Personal Motivation Summary:

1. Primary motivation = spiritual relationship with my “greater power”.
2. Confidence that my persona is not solely sourced in my physical brain. 
3. Helping others:
4. Relationship with loved ones (immediate/extended family, friends, and even my animals). DM and DAI play a big part here, enabling peer groups via either text or video chat.
5. Crafts and creating ANYTHING.

 Details:

1.  Primary motivation = spiritual relationship with my “greater power”.  My cognitive abilities are dwindling, but my emotions seem unusually emphasized.  I theorize that my spiritual relationships are also capable of emphasis and growth during this time.  This is partially triggered by my maternal grandmother’s experiences and partially triggered by my own experiences.  I believe that dementia interferes with almost every OTHER function in life, but it does NOT interfere with our search for the Divine. Instead I think we are somehow even closer to that ephemeral consciousness … if we are only open and willing. Without confidence that there exists a loving purposeful consciousness capable of orchestrating a difference on earth, I am empty of any lasting meaningful hope.  But really that was true regardless of my circumstances in life.  Since five years old; long before my various disabilities, that was the foundation of my life — everything else was built upon it.  Beliefs about the entity’s characteristics have changed thru the years, but always there was an awareness of this existence; a loving purposeful consciousness capable of orchestrating a difference on earth.  I call that consciousness “G0d”, but am not offended if you have a different name for that entity.  While I still have some abilities, desire to be an example and help others is a secondary driving force, but those abilities are dwindling, so that hope only carries me so far.  Ultimately (once my dementia advances past the point of my ability to help others and I become primarily a burden to others) G0d is my only hope of meaning.  My persistence and satisfaction with life is the same as it has always been; G0d. https://truthfulkindness.com/2014/07/16/2012-1018-faith-and-dementia/

2.  Confidence that my persona is not solely sourced in my physical brain.   Phrases like “But my grandmother is mostly gone”, and “but she is not there any more” make me very angry, and encourage my friends’ decisions for early death.  If I am a Person With Dementia, my brain cells are dying and brain size is decreasing (whether it is measurable yet or not).  Thus my ability to communicate thoughts, needs, and experiences is decreasing.  But if persona is not confined to physical brain then my true essence does not decrease.  Besides my spiritual beliefs, a contributing factor to this opinion is research into near-death experiences, and the uncommon occurrence of near-normal speech and activity from severe dementia patients during their last days before death.  HOW can they operate as if their brain could hold information it no longer has the ability to hold?  I believe it is because physical brain does not hold the persona – something else does.  Thus lower brain capacity does not lower presence of my persona. https://truthfulkindness.com/2014/07/20/2012-0913-hold-my-hand/

3.  Helping others: Driven to write as long as possible in order to make use of this window of ability, in hope that what I write can someday be useful to those making policy decisions or instructing others in caregiver issues.  Dementia Awareness activities are important to me, as well as helping current patients thru dementiamentors.com (DM) and advocating thru PWD non-profit of DementiaAllianceInternational.org (DAI).  I have begun gathering blog entries of Persons With Dementia and publishing them in weekly newsletter called PWD Perspective (to see Dementia “Thru the Looking Glass” of fellow PWD Life Perceptions).  I also began Facebook entity called PWD Perspective to gather FaceBook status updates marked “public” for fellow PWD, also in order to make public the PWD perspective.  Poster for Dementia Mentors in memory of my two maternal grandmothers who traveled this path before me.  

4.  Relationship with loved ones (immediate/extended family, friends, and even my animals). DM and DAI play a big part here, enabling true peer groups via either text or video chat.

5.  Crafts and creating ANYTHING  makes me feel alive, and increases my energy.

* Admin issues: SHARE dementia awareness thru buttons below.  If interested in receiving notice of future blog postings there is a “follow” button in the upper left corner (MS Explorer) or lower right (Safari and Chrome).  Feel free to leave your thoughts in the form of comments, but please filter your comments with truthful loving kindness to all concerned.  If there is an advertisement below, I have no control over what is shown.  — Full legal name Truthful Loving Kindness copyright on 2014-10/31.
// <![CDATA[
(function () { document.write(“”);} () )
// ]]>