Jan Walks the Walk

You have heard the statement, “You need to do more than talk the talk, you need to walk the walk.” In essence it means you should not be just telling people what to do, you should be willing and able to do it yourself. Most residents at PVE have often heard “the boss” tell us what to do when we knew he/she couldn’t “do it” themselves.

Here at PVE we have someone who models the “walk the walk” example.

Jan Olson is the Director of Wellness. Her job is to make sure we all have the opportunity at PVE to enjoy life as we age because we can find ways to practice the eight dimensions of wellness — physical, intellectual, spiritual, social, emotional, environmental, vocational and cultural. Moreover, Jan and her team go out of the way to show us each of these dimensions on a daily basis. When we think of wellness, we often think of physical fitness. That’s just the start. I ask you to look at each dimension and think of three examples of it here at PVE.

I’ll give you a head start with the dimension of spiritual. We have the Sunday worship service in Rawlinson Hall, the periodic “Celebrations of Life” when we lose a resident, Catholic mass on PVTV, the Episcopal Church service at assisted living, the PVE chapel in Laurel Creek, and our chaplain, Perry Polk.

If we look at the physical dimension, we have a perfect example to follow in Jan. She “does” fitness. Besides conducting fitness classes here and riding her bike to work and on weekly bike rides with residents, she does fitness on her own time. Jan and her husband have hiked in Sedona, climbed Half Dome in Yosemite Valley, and Jan has walked the Big Sur marathon.

We are fortunate to live in a place where the staff can guide us as we explore the wellness dimensions. What can you do to improve your wellness? Don’t just talk about it. As Nike says, “Just do it.” No more just “talk the talk.” Think of Jan and “walk the walk.”