Healthy Aging: Achieving Holistic Wellness
As September comes to a close and the seasons change over, it is a good time to focus on our overall wellbeing. There is a lot of focus in society to be thin and look as young as possible, but not much focus on living a healthy lifestyle. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements that reinforce this. It was bad enough when it was on TV or huge billboards, but now it is also on our social media feeds as we scroll through our phones. It is getting increasingly difficult to get away from it. A person can be physically “in shape,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean there is a healthy balance between their mental and physical health.
Here are three different areas to look at when really considering a holistic approach to wellness.
Mental Wellness
In our youth, we are used to a lot of change year after year, and our minds adapt to it. Each year in school, we have new teachers and are constantly learning new information. As we age, the expectations get higher, and we are expected to keep up. Then we go to college and enter the workforce, or enter the workforce right out of high school. Both are very mentally demanding. Our brains need to switch from learning about facts in a classroom, to real experiences out in the world. But as we age, there is typically less change. A lot of people make career changes later in their lives, but it is less common.
There is a message we receive from society, that you learn when you are young, and after that you are working and the learning stops. If you think about it, that doesn’t make any sense. Learning is a life-long endeavor. There is also a lot of pressure from society that learning needs to be for a concrete end goal. For example, we learn a new skill, then apply it to make money. But what if we learn a new skill just to keep our minds sharp? Flex the muscle in our brain that adjusts to novelty. You don’t need to feel guilty for taking time to learn piano later in life just because you don’t think you will become a concert pianist, it makes activates different parts of your brain and makes it work in a different way.
Travel is a great way to get your brain working. Suddenly, you have to think about all these little things you just do on autopilot in a familiar setting. Your flight is canceled? Your train is late? You need to figure out what to do next, and you might not even speak the language in that environment. For more information on how travel can affect your brain, click here!
Physical Wellness
Studies have shown there is so much more to physical activity than just losing weight. Don’t get me wrong, it feels great to fit into an old pair of jeans that you haven’t worn in a while, or go down a size at the store. “If you look great, you feel great” is a valid saying! However, there is so much more to it than that. Aerobic exercise can get your heart going, so that in your daily life it doesn’t have to work as hard. The main thing I started to notice when I was running on a regular basis was that I wasn’t getting winded after going up a few flights of stairs anymore.
Strength training isn’t just for athletes anymore! Research has shown that doing strength training as you age can prevent injury and protect your joints that lose flexibility over time. Your bones lose density during the aging process and muscle mass is lost, but if you actively counteract that by doing strength training, you can prevent a lot of age-related illness.
Working on your balance is another important activity to prevent injury or falls as we age. Dancing is a great way to work on balance and coordination while having fun! Yoga is also a good way to work on balance in a safe environment with a trained yoga instructor that can adapt poses to meet your needs and keep you safe. To find more resources for the importance of physical activity as we age, here are a couple of links for you! Click here to read about tips from the US Department of Health and Human Services, and click here to read about tips for strength training.
Emotional Wellness
Finding balance in your life, feeling emotionally supported, and independently caring for yourself is important for mental health as we age. Modern life just gets more and more demanding, and it is hard to balance everything. There is a lot of pressure to be “superhuman.” We get these messages from media that we are supposed to raise perfect kids, have an amazing career, have money to be able to enjoy life, but also save for retirement, and still somehow manage to get enough sleep. It is overwhelming at times. And the bigger presence social media has, the more we see pictures of people at their best, a literal snapshot into their lives. We don’t see the ups and downs, so when we experience them ourselves, it might feel isolating, creating a feeling that other people aren’t struggling too. That is why it is so important to reach out and have a social network of caring friends you feel you can be open and honest with.
I have personally felt that it takes more and more effort as I get older to stay in touch with friends. When I was in school, I saw my peers every day. In college, all of my friends were right there, a built-in support system. As I have gotten older and moved away from many of my friends, I have found I need to make a conscious effort to reach out and make plans. It gets difficult, especially when there are demands in your work and home life to keep up with. But it is important to keep in mind that keeping a social circle, keeping up with your emotional well-being, is a necessity. It might not feel like rest and reflection is productive, but it is! To read more about fostering emotional wellness, click here to see the toolkit by the National Institute of Health!
A Takeaway
As we age, our bodies change and things that may have worked in the past might not be working anymore. Unhealthy habits, whether physical or mental, may become more and more problematic as time goes on. But aging is inevitable and not inherently negative, but our health isn’t always completely in our control. Every individual has some degree of power over their own wellness. Even if it starts by just making some small adjustments to your daily routines.
Author: Jenni Chute, MA, MT-BC
Editor: Sonya Imperio, MT-BC
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