d SUCCESSFUL AGING THROUGH THE USE OF HOLISTIC SELF-CARE PRACTICES

A basic philosophical belief of the totality paradigm in nursing is that human beings are cared for holistically (Parse, 1987) and interact with their environments to maintain an optimum level of health (Cody, 1995; Dunn, 2004; Fawcett, 1993). Al-though this holistic paradigm prevails in nursing, there is a lack of research knowledge addressing self-care activities that are perceived by individuals as having therapeutic benefits across physical, psychological, social, and spiritual domains. Holistic self-care activities may be of particular interest to older adults because of the many challenges that occur with aging. These challenges may include (1) suffering from multiple chronic illnesses, (2) chronic pain, (3) coping with several deaths of friends, loved ones, and spouses, (4) retirement, and (5) recognition of their own mortality. Consequently, older adults experience many of these challenges concurrentl