Living Well 60+ November – December 2014 | Page 8

8 NOV/DEC 2014 Stay Active – Stay Alive! Get up and get out to find all the opportunities available to you by Donald Hoffman For retirees, activity means life! Once retired, we have huge blocks of time to fill. A new stage of life is ready to begin. What will you do? The many hours spent working are gone. Most likely your kids (like mine) have moved from your home and are busy starting their own lives, leaving behind many more additional empty hours. It is how we fill our time, the design we invent for our lives, that ultimately defines the success or failure of our retirement. Perhaps you’ve dreamed for years about retirement, what you would like to do and how you will do it. Great! You’ve planned your retirement and are ready to go. Many others, however, have no such plan and no idea what they will do during the 20-plus years or more they may spend in retirement. That is precisely why you MUST stay active to stay vital and alive. Not Aging Well? NEED FLEXIBILITY? STRENGTH? BALANCE? Sessions with Pamela Bolin, Aging Specialist Master of Science, Kinesiology, with years of experience can help! 1 FREE INTRO SESSION With this ad. To schedule, call 859-508-8827 today. PAMSFITNESS.COM Ultimate Fitness, Inc. Pamela Bolin MS NSCA-CPT Aging Specialist Many people pursue hobbies and other interests around the house and in the yard. While there is a lot you can do around the house to keep your mind and spirit active and involved, it is better to first focus on activities outside the home. Perhaps the worst thing you can let happen is to allow yourself to become homebound and isolated from friends and the community as a whole. Get up and get out of the house. Join clubs, attend senior center functions, get to know people any way you can (in a safe, clean and orderly way, of course). Reacquaint yourself with church groups and civic clubs and educational functions. Most of all, meet new friends. Become aware of what is going on in the world around you and get involved. The more you mix with people, the greater the benefits will be. Vary your activities. Trying new activities keeps your curiosity involved and in turn increases brain activity, decision making and creativity. Keeping busy is a goal in itself, but life must still have meaning. Begin by carefully choosing areas you have always wanted to explore. For example, let’s say you’re interested in quilting and actively quilt at home. Why not contact your local county extensi