Contrary to popular belief, youth is not only reserved for those in their early years—there are many ways you can feel young again in retirement too! When we retire, we gain more freedom, more choices, and more time for creativity and reflection. By thinking about our values and what retirement and independent senior living means to us, we can approach our finer years with energy, positivity, and excitement.
Great ways to feel young again in retirement
There are so many ways in which we can feel younger in retirement. If you don’t want to act your age—that’s a good thing! Below we reveal a list of strategies you can adopt to help you feel younger by the day.
1. Keep a routine
Structuring our day and having a routine to follow is not only a great way of bringing healthy habits into our lives, but also one of the biggest daily motivators we can make for ourselves. Things to schedule include walking/exercise, eating, and sleeping—but there are plenty of other great additions that can be added.
2. Set realistic expectations for yourself
Don’t set the alarm at 5 am every morning if you know you’re never going to adhere to getting up at that ghastly hour. To ensure that you are not dooming yourself to failure from the get-go, create an achievable routine for yourself.
3. Make exercise a regular occurrence
While you don’t need to go to the gym, doing some form of exercise several times a week—be it walking, running, yoga, or golf—should be on your list of weekly priorities. Choose a form of exercise you enjoy and can fit in with your lifestyle.
4. Give yourself something to look forward to each week
The feeling of anticipating something can be energising! Whether that’s going to an interesting event, spending time with family, planning a brunch out with friends, or something else entirely, filling up your week with fun things to look forward to is an excellent way to stay motivated and feel energetic.
For those who find it difficult to stay up to date on events or plan their time well, keeping a journal or calendar of events is a useful habit to pick up! Whenever a new event you’re interested in comes along, put it in your journal! And alternatively, if you see too many white spaces in your calendar, you can seek out fun activities to fill up the week ahead of you.
5. Treat yourself
What with a family, a full-time job, and other responsibilities taking priority in our adult life, much of our time and energy can end up being spent caring for others, while our own interests and well-being get put on the backburner.
Retirement is the perfect opportunity to start putting yourself first again. Consider, what forms of self-care you like. What makes you feel good about yourself? Whether that is having regular beauty treatments, buying new clothes, or learning something new and attending interesting classes, come up with ways to treat yourself.
6. Maintain a positive attitude towards aging
Managing our mindset is incredibly important and this is true for people of all ages. This is because maintaining a positive outlook on life increases our happiness, and happy people are more likely to search for the positives in life and seek out activities that make them feel happy.
When we put our minds to something, it is amazing how much we can achieve. From simply helping a neighbour, taking an exercise class, or making a delicious, nutritious meal, we can feel the purpose in what we are doing and feel younger for it.
Approach each day with a positive intention to move forward. Find simple things to enjoy every day, such as your morning cup of coffee, a little retail therapy, accomplishing a goal, or reading a novel in the evening.
7. Get savvy with technology
Being computer-savvy and understanding modern technology can be an empowering skill to have at your fingertips. Not only can technology enable you to book appointments, research topics that interest you, and assist you in making travel plans, but it can also bring you many other benefits as well.
If you want to buy new clothing or items, online shopping makes this easy. Other people use the internet to take on small business opportunities. One of the biggest advantages of technology, however, is that it can be a gateway to connecting and keeping in touch with people. Electronic tools such as Facebook Messenger and Instagram are two options you can use on your smartphone.
Examples of how technology can be used to help us improve our physical well-being include using applications such as step counters for Fitbit and fitness apps for smartphones. If you have the tech, you are more likely to exercise each day, and seeing your progress results can be satisfying and motivating.
8. Bring pastime hobbies back into your life
With so many workshops, classes, and clubs available these days to try, the possibilities to use our time in fun and creative ways are endless. Whether you want to bring back old pastime hobbies or introduce new interests into your life, retirement is the perfect time to do so.
Feel young again in retirement by taking on new creative projects such as art classes or health-related hobbies like Pilates and yoga. You can also use all that wisdom you have acquired throughout your life to coach others who are just starting out.
Take advantage of your newfound freedom in retirement
When it comes to approaching pivotal milestones in life, retirement should be thought of as a launching pad—not a landing pad. Retirement gives you the freedom and time to do what you love most. You can even be a bigger part of society than you were in your busy working life. Take advantage of this amazing new freedom and get involved in fun activities that self-generate more good feelings and positivity in your life.
If you’re looking for new ways to increase your freedom and maximise your capabilities during retirement, Settlers is here for you. As a lifestyle retirement village on the North Shore, Auckland, our modern and spacious retirement apartments are designed to provide all the comfort, ease, and security you need to live your best life without restraint.
If you have any questions or would like to book a tour of our lovely village, get in touch with our team today.
