How to Live an Enriching Life Through Purpose and Community Engagement
In what’s dubbed the “Third Act of Life,” retirees and empty nesters often struggle with a sense of identity and self as the daily routine a career provides goes away and their children have grown up and moved out.
To embrace this new phase of life, it’s important to keep engaged in social activities, which have shown to be crucial elements for maintaining our cognitive health as we age.
Importance of maintaining independence in daily activities
As our loved ones age and begin to need help with some of their daily activities, having empathy and respecting their desire for independence is crucial. Remember, there was a time when they were changing your diapers or helping you navigate the world as a young person. For them to have to feel chaperoned in their later years can lead to negative emotions, so give them their independence when possible.
Encouraging loved ones to explore new interests and learning opportunities not only helps to enable their feelings of maintaining independence but also helps ward off age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. Learning something new creates new connections in the brain, which has proven helpful in preventing the loss of memory while increasing brain plasticity and maintaining cognitive function.
Incorporating enjoyable hobbies into daily life
Growing old should not mean that one becomes relegated to sitting on the sofa all day long watching daytime television. As noted above, learning new things can help maintain brain health and can also be incorporated into maintaining social interactions, which we will discuss below.
While physical activity may be limited, finding an enjoyable hobby for your loved one to learn and stay active can be great for their brain and physical health. Some good examples that stimulate various parts of the brain and can lead to fun regardless of age are:
- Cooking classes (perhaps even exotic meals that our loved ones haven’t learned to cook)
- Quizzes or puzzles (that also stimulate the brain’s production of dopamine)
- Physical exercise geared appropriately to their health and fitness level
- Gardening
- Learning to play a musical instrument
- Learning a new language
- Painting, drawing, calligraphy, or ceramics
- Origami
- Blogging, writing, or poetry
- Reading
- Travel, either independently or with a tour operator geared toward seniors
Benefits of social interaction for mental health
Humans are social creatures, and that does not change with age. Whether your loved one was never a “people person” or was a gregarious social butterfly in their younger years, keeping a healthy social life can provide for more than just fun.
A study by the National Institute of Health (NIH) called the Health and Retirement Study found that high social engagement was associated with better cognitive health later in life. Whether that means visiting with neighbors, joining a social or hobby club, or doing volunteer work, keeping the social circle going can help keep our brains and bodies in better shape as we approach our golden years.
Finding purpose through volunteering opportunities
Volunteering not only helps from a cognitive benefits perspective, but it also helps our loved ones find a new purpose in their lives. Often in our youth, we are so focused on work and family that there isn’t much room left to volunteer.
Volunteering allows our aging loved ones to maintain social interaction, perhaps with some physical activity, but most importantly it gives them the feeling of giving something back to the world that they spent their life enjoying.
Here are some ways to help find the right cause or organization for which to volunteer.
Tailoring volunteer work to personal skills and interests
The world is filled with good people and good organizations that focus on spreading love and joy in the world. Many have created organizations that focus on putting good back into the world, and quite a few of them are willing to take any help that volunteers are willing to offer.
Not every organization is a great fit, however. If your loved one has mobility issues at their age, a non-profit that climbs mountains or goes into the ocean for cleanups may not be a wise choice. Let’s go through some ways to find optimal volunteer opportunities based on our loved one’s abilities, needs, and interests:
- Identify interests and passions that have special meaning for them and that they would enjoy investing time in
- Research volunteer opportunities available for those interests
- Volunteer matching websites (VolunteerMatch, Idealist, HandsOn Network)
- Check local non-profits (animal shelters, soup kitchens, Goodwill, etc)
- Contact community centers and libraries (which often have information on local organizations)
- Evaluate each potential option
- Research the organization’s mission and values
- Check reviews and testimonials about working with and for the organization
- Contact the organization to see if they would like a new volunteer
The positive impact of helping others on self-esteem
Along with the social, physical, and cognitive benefits, volunteering’s positive impact on self-esteem cannot be overlooked. The general effects of aging and just the slowing down from the hectic pace of regular working life can often cause negative self-esteem, especially in those who led busy lives in their careers.
While helping others has been shown to have incredible positive benefits for feelings of self-worth and self-esteem, helping strangers in acts of kindness both big and small consistently proves to have the greatest impact – both on the world and on ourselves. Finding the right volunteer opportunity for your aging loved one can prove to be a great move in all aspects of their lives as well as for the world in general.
Our team at Affinity Care offers volunteer opportunities through our Continuum program, which can be applied to through our website. After a screening process, volunteers will be placed in an area of service within our Volunteer Department based on their skill sets. Continuum even offers our volunteers the opportunity to improve their skill sets and levels of competency.
If you or your family has questions about what the best option for an aging loved one may be, our team can help walk you through the questions that need to be asked and decisions to be made to find the best environment and support for their needs.
Affinity Care Hospice is a nationally recognized provider of compassionate hospice and palliative care, served by teams of local caring professionals whose mission is to provide comfort to seriously ill patients and their families.
