By the time you hit sixty-five, it’s a fair bet that the last three or four decades have been spent raising a family and working hard in your chosen career. To suddenly be without commitments like these can feel a little daunting to begin with; but believe it or not, now is the prime opportunity for you to take control of your time and maximize enjoyment. One of the biggest parts to get right now is your overall health and wellbeing. Concentrating on these will not only improve your quality of life but will also allow you to do the things you love for much longer too. Here are some of our top tips to optimize different aspects of health to really give you that edge.
Emotional Health
Emotional health can be a tricky one, particularly when you reach your later years, and your home is no longer full of the hustle and bustle of a young family’s life, when you probably wished for a little peace! Emotional health is more about checking in with your heart rather than your head and pinpointing what behaviors you display in response to events that happen. Here are some great ways to ensure your emotional state stays on an even keel:
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Mindfulness practice
Mental Health
Where emotional health is linked to matters of the heart and your reaction to situations, mental health is much more about your head. It can be easy, especially if you live alone, to become insular and inward-looking, which can negatively impact your mental wellbeing, by making you more prone to anxiety, depression and isolation too. Humans are social beings and so friendship really comes into play here too, with people who are easily able to socialize, for instance, in settings such as assisted living Burbank, generally having a happier state of mind. By taking care of your mental health, you will truly be looking after the entire body, allowing yourself to enjoy your retirement, instead of feeling lost. A few great ways to keep on top of this are:
- Talk to someone about how you feel
- Welcome fresh air and nature into your life
- Eat foods that are full of vitamins and minerals – these really can affect your head!
Physical Health
This is the one that most of us think about when we hear the word ‘healthy’, and it stands to reason that keep active in your later years is only going to give you good things. Throughout life, from a medical point of view, the more exercise you can give your body, and the better you feed it, the generally healthier you will be. Exercise doesn’t have to be rigorous, however, particularly as you get older. Here are our favorite low impact ways to stay active:
- Swimming
- Walking
- Cycling
- Gardening
- Golf
- Stretching
The key here is to take all three of these aspects of health, and work to keep them in optimal condition. Many of our suggestions here will cross over from one category to another; for example, any exercise will of course release natural endorphins, in turn having a positive effect on your mental and emotional health too!