Feeling gratitude and expressing appreciation have a positive impact on your physical and mental health because these emotions and attitudes lower stress, foster strong social connections, and encourage a healthy lifestyle. Studies show thankfulness strengthens and heals the heart, increases empathy, and eases depression. A grateful disposition also bolsters immunity, improves sleep, and promotes healthy habits.

There’s no denying that exercise is good for us and that even a moderate amount of regular exercise can yield both physical and psychological health benefits. Yet, one of the greatest misconceptions is that there’s a point in our lives when we must come to terms with our physical limitations. As a result, age often becomes a reason not to workout. Chartwell Crescent Gardens resident Marion proves this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Many factors contribute to healthy aging, including staying physically, mentally, and socially active, and nutritious eating. Retirement communities support healthy aging by offering residents opportunities to connect socially with peers, engage in mentally stimulating activities, and do physical activities that build or maintain endurance, strength, flexibility, and balance. Participation in the arts and volunteering also enhances and enriches the health and well-being of residents in their daily lives.

I never dreamed I’d be living in a retirement residence, and with all the negative publicity these past 2.5 years, I hoped I’d never have to. Yet, after a five-hour operation to remove a parotid gland and a neck dissection, here I am in respite care.

Regular physical activity helps to prevent chronic disease and promote brain health in older adults in multiple ways. Studies show that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise boosts episodic and short-memory, lifts mood, sharpens thinking, and improves decision-making. Engaging in various kinds of physical activity, including yoga and tai chi, also helps to ease stress and anxiety, increase deep sleep and sleep duration, and relieve chronic pain.

People who feel and see themselves as younger than their chronological age tend to experience better health and longevity. A positive view of aging bolsters brain and heart health, builds psychological resilience and preserves hearing. A youthful outlook is also associated with lower depression and hospitalization risks, fewer aches and pains, and less frailty.

Older adults who do volunteer work to help others, such as mentoring children in need, aiding refugees or addressing climate change enjoy better health and find meaning and purpose in daily life. Doing good through formal or informal volunteering lifts mood, protects the heart, preserves memory, and reduces dementia risk. Volunteering also helps to ease stress, anxiety, and chronic pain, reduce disability risk, and add years to life.

You’re never too old to become a plant parent – no green thumb required, and the health and happiness benefits are many and varied. Check out these plants with purpose, each one offering a specific benefit while also being easy to grow and maintain.

Bertha Holtby, better known as “Birdie” to friends and family, has been a resident of Chartwell Southwind for the past 16 years, and is likely one of the first people you’ll meet if you choose to call the retirement residence home.

Are you thinking of travelling again? If so, your next journey may look a little different from pre-pandemic times. Here are three tips that will make your journey safer, less stressful, and more enjoyable:

If you‘ve fallen into believing your individual efforts to go green won’t make a difference, think about your grand- and great-grandchildren, and the kind of world they will inherit. Also consider that there are over seven million people over 65 in Canada today*; if every senior were to implement even one of the following eco-friendly suggestions, think of the difference it would make!

Tracing your family roots or ancestry – the study of genealogy – ranks in the top 30 of the world’s most popular hobbies.* Many seniors enjoy jumping on popular ancestry websites to create their family trees, track down distant relatives, and discover fascinating lore about where they came from.