Aging with Purpose
Posted by Donna Mae Scheib on February 02, 2017
Aging with Purpose
I’m 65, what do I do now?
For the past 45 years, all you’ve known is work, bills, family, and friends. So, now what? After many years of work and effort put into building a comfortable life for yourself and your loved ones, it is important to find hobbies and a general purpose to fulfill in your later years. If you aren’t 65 yet, but your loved ones are, help them to re-find their purpose and the activities that make them feel joyful and full of life still.
What are my options?
The opportunities are endless compared to what was available to you while you were middle-aged. The beauty of aging is that you now have an abundance of time and generally, a fair amount of funds to chase your hobbies and dreams around. If you or your loved one has found a new home in a senior living home, your opportunities are still quite abundant.
As the family members of those who live in senior living homes now, it is our duty and privilege to provide purpose and opportunities for them to continue living productive lives even into their later years.
Give me choices…
Maybe you need a baby sitter, company for your pet while you’re at work, someone to care for your plants occasionally, the list goes on and on. By allocating various tasks to our elderly friends and family, we are giving them small purposes. For many of them, all they’ve ever known is how to take care of people, pets, homes, and hearts. By re-kindling that sense of being needed, we are able to provide so much for them. Spending time with our seniors and learning from them is crucial to passing down knowledge between generations. Our seniors can help us out as much as we help them if we allow quality relationships to develop.
Resourceful, not a responsibility.
As people age, they tend to feel more like a liability or a “pain” for those who care for them. Feelings of uselessness, lack of inspiration, boredom, and just a general sense of not serving any purpose anymore are common for individuals as they retire and phase into their later stages of life. Depression and other mental illnesses can develop and take away from the overall quality of life if a new sense of purpose and new hobbies are not developed. As life slows down and becomes less demanding, it is important to keep in mind that our loved ones are ready to play new roles and take on new responsibilities within the family. Grandparents are so important and valuable as resources for their grandkids, encouraging relationships between the two will be beneficial for the development of both the grandparents and grandchildren. Mentorships between the young and the elderly can lead to some incredible friendships and opportunities for mental and emotional growth for both parties involved.
Purpose, Productivity, and Peace
Moving forward into our years of senior living, let us take the advice of professionals and our loved ones and strive to find what makes us happy to be alive. Quality is more important than quantity, remember that when considering your later years in life. Once you’re free from the daily obligations of work, education, family, and other responsibilities, it is important to take advantage of the time to be spent with family now that they’ve been raised and are independent. Seniors have the perfect opportunity to forge new friendships with those living in their senior living homes and also strengthen familial ties from past years. Finding purpose, continuing to be productive, and finding peace with this new place in your life will be crucial to finding happiness and even living longer. Studies have shown that happier, more active people who feel as if they have a purpose to fulfill will live longer. Go ahead, test it out and enjoy these golden years just as they were meant to be enjoyed.