Last week in my Take Heart connection with you, I talked about the importance of wearing your hearing aids full-time. Staying home over this past year because of the pandemic has a lot of people justifying that they don’t need to wear their hearing aids as much as they should, or even at all. Let’s explore why this is not in your best interest.
Properly, fitted hearing aids are like exercise machines for your BRAIN and for your EARS.
The more you wear hearing aids, the more you are exercising your brain and ears. That’s why more and more family doctors, gerontologists, and neurologists are referring their patients to be fitted with hearing instruments. If there is any concern about cognitive decline or memory loss, physicians are recommending their patients have a thorough hearing test first.
Wear Your Hearing Aids To Exercise Your Brain
Wearing hearing aids should be a full-time job with overtime for the weekends!
It’s good for your mental, emotional and physical health to wear your hearing aids for a minimum of 8 hours per day. 10–12 hours per day would be even better for you. Monday through Friday. Saturday and Sunday. That’s where the overtime comes in!
What motivates you to wear hearing aids?
One of my clients came in for a regular check-up. Louanne is a musician, so her sense of hearing is highly trained. She only has a mild hearing loss. Louanne hears well but has difficulty understanding the high pitch sounds such as F, S, T, K, and TH. Since she lives alone, she has not been motivated to wear her hearing aids on a daily basis, let alone 8+ hours per day.
During her visit, Louanne thanked me for NOT lecturing her about wearing her hearing aids.
This approach rarely gets people to wear their hearing aids, full time. In the past, people told her to persevere, and that she would get used to how hearing aids sounded. But she admitted that it felt like they were telling her to “just suck it up.” She appreciated the gentle and educational approach we take at Avalon. I had explained to Louanne, “It may not be easy at first, but ultimately it will get easier to put your hearing aids in every morning and leave them in, all day. Hearing aids will work better for you, and your brain will become more accepting of hearing in a new and different way. That internal battle you have with yourself, to wear or not wear your hearing aids, goes away and you are left with more peace and serenity!”
Training her brain to listen to British accents
What Louanne said next, blew me away. She told me that not only does she put her hearing aids on first thing in the morning, but that she is now training her brain to listen to accents. She loves the programming on KVIE public television, but used to get so frustrated trying to follow the accents on British programs. Louanne decided to REFRAME this frustration and turn it into a personal challenge to train her brain to listen to British accents. Brilliant!
Is there something in your life that frustrates you? Try REFRAMING it.
Why not challenge yourself to think of something that frustrates you? Now, be willing to reframe it into something more positive and peaceful. For example, I used to get frustrated with red traffic lights, especially if I was in a hurry. Needless to say, I would hit a lot of red lights. One day, I made a conscious choice to reframe red lights. Now, I see them as a time to stop and rest. If I sense any frustration with a red light, I remember that this is a break in my busy day. I laugh and give thanks!
Now, let’s think about a BEAR, a Teddy BEAR that you could hold
I personally like to make associations to remember important things. So, I created a fun way to remember the importance of wearing hearing aids, every day for a least 8 hours, using the anacronym, B.E.A.R. Picture yourself holding a teddy bear. Go ahead, take a moment and imagine yourself hugging that teddy bear. And then, imagine that wearing hearing aids is good for your B.E.A.R!
Wearing your hearing aids is good for your B.E.A.R.
Hopefully, this will inspire you to wear hearing aids. If for any reason you don’t like your hearing aids, (or you don’t have hearing aids), would you please schedule a complimentary appointment with Avalon so that we can help your BEAR (Brain, Ears, And Relationships)?