Yoga on the Beach for Silverado Residents

Breathe in, breathe out. Close your eyes, and take in the warm sand and sound of waves along the coast on this mild day. If you’re part of the Yoga on the Beach group at Silverado San Juan Capistrano, it’s likely you hear those words every Wednesday morning. And when you open your eyes, you look around to see a beautiful day at Doheney Beach, in Orange County, CA.

Every week, about eight Silverado residents take a trip to the beach to meet their yoga instructor for an hour-long class atop the sand. The group began taking these trips earlier this year as part of Nexus at Silverado, a special program created to help residents in the early stages of dementia build and maintain cognitive ability. 

Nexus — which is available at every Silverado memory care community — includes 20 hours a week of specialized programming based on the latest dementia research. Yoga is a stress relieving activity that is shown to provide numerous benefits to individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment. From reduced brain atrophy and increased brain blood flow, to reduced levels of the stress hormone cortisol, stress reduction is one of six pillars that make up Nexus.