Educational Opportunities

Take advantage of educational opportunities:

Go back to college and audit courses---or get a degree for the first time---or a second degree in a subject you really enjoy!
Look at the offerings of community colleges.
If you are in a metropolitan area, check out the education programs offered by museums.
Look at offerings of senior centers (or centers with a comparable name).
Check out the Department of Recreation in your municipality, where, no doubt, classes are offered on a regular basis.

And get yourself knowledgeable on the computer, taking advantage of the wealth of courses offered on the subject.

seniors clubs

Expand social contacts:
Be open to making new friends and acquaintances.
Make it a point to enlarge your circle to include more than your generation.
Don't be afraid to get to know people with differing views from you; they can be as interested in your views as you can be in theirs.

Experts comment on the benefits of seniors getting out of their rut and making their social contacts more intergenerational.
It enables all of us to have a younger outlook and not be so self-obsessed with aches and pains that members of our generation are prone to talk about, especially if they have nothing else that interests them.

I really like the comment made by the 87-year old college student (imagine her social contacts!):
You have to laugh and find humor every day.
You've got to have a dream.
When you lose your dreams, you die.
We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it.

Health care for seniors

Medical experts note that many people in this country, regardless of their economic situation, do not have a primary care physician.

This situation particularly applies to members of the Boom generation who, up to this point, have never experienced health problems.

Lastly, when thinking about health, do an evaluation of yourself on your diet, and how you need to change some of the lifetime habits you have formed up to this point.

Recently a gerontologist remarked to me, "Following a healthy diet may not lengthen your life to any extent, but it can ensure that you will stay healthier much longer!"

Look at health and fitness:

Get to a Fitness Center and get fit!
(Perhaps for the first time in many years.) Take up golf.
Or simply just get out and walk the dog two miles every day. And if you don't have a dog, grab a friend and do the walk together.
Go for strength building and/or balance exercises.
Check out places that offer water aerobics (a great exercise!).

If you are a tennis enthusiast, there are many centers that offer a seniors tennis program.

You might not be Wimbledon material, but you can have a great deal of fun and perhaps meet new people.
Find a good primary care physician, one who is familiar with problems you may have as you age.

If you don't have one, get one who is younger than you, attentive to medical breakthroughs, and possesses a warm and caring concern for you.

Set general goals and objectives:

Most people reaching retirement are at a crossroads in life, having spent the vast majority of their years first at study, then at work, juggling careers, children, parents, finances, community responsibilities, the high times and the low times.

Now it's time to take charge of where you want to go and what you want to do.
Think outside the box!

Set goals and objectives in living accommodations; your lifestyle; life's enhancements ignored over the years; and your finances.

Most importantly, give plenty of attention--and get help if you need it---to the financial issues.

Review life up to this point:

Look at the peaks, the valleys, the joys, the sad times, the changes you wish you had made, the changes you still have the opportunity to make.
Appraise your own personality, your lifestyle.
Consider your likes and dislikes, where you are in the life cycle and how you want to live your life in the coming decades.
Take a new--and possibly different--look at your own spiritual life, relating this to how you want to approach life from here on out.
Most importantly, be comfortable in your thoughts, your decisions, your plans for the future.

This can be a daunting task. It can also be revealing. Not too many of us want to place ourselves figuratively on the analyst's couch and peel away the protective layers built up over the past decades. Many take the attitude of "I don't want to think about that," or "I'll think about that tomorrow." But, hey it can also be a bit of fun.

Have osteoporosis?

Bones lose minerals and strength as people age. Serious bone loss is a problem for about 25% of older people.

You can prevent some of this bone loss with strength activities.

Your muscles and bones have to be challenged to get stronger or to maintain their strength as you age.

Join a beginner's program to learn some techniques that will help you improve your strength. It will help you maintain your independence and quality of life.

Ask your doctor or health-care provider what would be safe for you.

If you have osteoporosis, being active will still be of great benefit, but activities may need to be adapted to provide that benefit without putting you at risk.

Here are some suggested activities:

Resistance training that challenges your muscles and bones
Aqua fitness programs
Walking
Folk or line dancing
Specialized classes for people with osteoporosis