Retirement - Now What?

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening,
that is translated through you into action, and
because there is only one of you in all time,
this expression is unique.

Martha Graham

Exercise and Maintain your Vitality.

We have heard it all our lives, exercise to maintain your health, some of us did and others didn’t. Too busy we said, too lazy we sighed.

That glorious, warm, exciting, exuberant word “vitality” is what you need to maintain when you grow older after all, you have retired from full time work, not from life.

You need and want what the dictionary defines as vitality i.e. exuberant physical strength and mental vigour it gives you the capacity for continuing a meaningful or purposeful existence.

One of the many benefits of retirement is the control over your schedules and those reasons, you used in the past, to avoid exercise has slowly dissolved into oblivion. You need to enhance your strength to cope with infirmities and prevent or control arthritis which I believe is the most effective way to deal with this common malady.

Those of you who have always enjoyed exercising understand and wax lyrical about the pleasures it brings and how good you feel when you STOP ha ha! Those of us who approached exercise with a degree of reluctance need to know the joy physical activity brings.

Firstly, perhaps any outdoor activity encompasses the added benefit of enjoying nature and being aware of the seasons progression as the days lengthen and shorten.

Secondly, many forms of exercise provide a means of enhancing your social interactions and give you an activity to do with others e.g. pilates or yoga, swimming at the gym, ballroom dance classes whatever excites or interests you.

Exercise can give you many things, new friendships, new hurts, as your body develops its strength but also the pleasurable feeling, satisfaction and sense of accomplishment when you STOP!

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do

with the time

we have rushed through life trying to save.

- Will Rogers, 1949

Now don’t forget that other muscle, the one between your ears!

Retirees need to find activities that not only stimulate you mentally but give you joy.

My mother, at 85 is mentally and physically agile due to a special set of genes no doubt as she was not one for exercise. All my life she has said to me, don’t use a calculator for arithmetic unless it's necessary, use you mind - keep it working with all sorts of puzzles!

Mentally she has always added up whatever in her head, loves crossword puzzles, now has discovered Suduku, loves her Kindle for book reading, will beat you at Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble. Does her own shopping (although she no longer drives) and walks wherever she can, climbs the stairs instead of using the lift and walks up straight and without a cane.

Good for her right - so what are the things you never had time for when working full time?

Now that you have retired learn something new, perhaps

• painting,
• garden design,
• a new language,
• take up woodwork,
• flying - be it engine or glider,
• bird watching etc.

Your mind is stimulated, you are stimulated, you are fascinating and joyful as you accomplish a goal and share it with other like-minded people.

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years.

We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but

to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

~Samuel Ullman

Who wants to be a tedious blob sitting in front of television - it certainly won’t make you appealing to other people nor will life be intriguing to you.

Perhaps in your retirement, you would like to do charity work, contribute in some way to society and make the world a better place for having you in it.

There are so many possibilities out there, from simple reading to the aged or infirm, sick children in hospitals, to teaching orphaned children something new, a skill, a game, how to grow vegetables or flowers, or other life skills like reading, writing or arithmetic.

Perhaps you could raise money for a specific project such as building a dormitory in a childrens’ home, laying walkways with rails or looking after gardens in an old age home, piping water or sanitation to the poor.

So darned much to do and now that you are retired you have the ability to have an impact on others’ lives. As long as you have your physical and mental capabilities you can be a positive influence in your small part of the world, making your mark and maintaining vitality.

Think about what else you can do to maintain, gain and live with exuberant vitality.

When I stand before God at the end of my life,

I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left,

and could say,

'I used everything you gave me'.

Erma Bombeck