Community life often remains a significant reason why many elders regularly opt to live in a retirement community. If your weekly schedule is unoccupied, but you seek an active social life, then a retirement community may help. You may participate in music therapy, join reading groups or engage in sports activities to make friends in retirement communities.
Playing Games Can Be Intellectually Stimulating
Games are usually a popular form of elderly mental exercise. Research has indicated that playing board games might benefit mental health or recreation. Also, board games are accessible to many, easy to participate in, or fun to join with peers. There are many versions of games to take part in, like chess, scrabble, board games, jigsaw puzzles, or crosswords. Puzzles might be an entertaining activity for elders experiencing some form of mental health ailment, like depression or grief.
Making Arts and Crafts Can Boost Mental Health
Making crafts with one’s own hands is not just fun but could benefit one’s mental health. Research shows that elders that engage in skills like knitting or pottery hold at least a 30 to 50 percent reduction in the overall risks of memory loss. Crafting may also reduce anxiety, alleviate depression, or cultivate a general feeling of joy and peace. Taking on a craft project may develop one’s confidence or offer seniors a sense of heightened engagement or leisure. There are diverse forms of crafting projects that elders can take part in, like collage, painting, knitting, sewing, coloring, pottery, or ceramics.
Music Improves Moods and Enhances Memory
Music is a fun, emotionally stimulating activity, enhances your attention, and helps improve your memory or mental alertness. There are various ways to engage in music as a therapeutic mental activity. Learn the lyrics of songs, then sing the pieces aloud. Practice playing a musical instrument, like the guitar or keyboards, then perform concerts with peers. Intonation was discovered to stimulate the mind by calming chaotic thoughts with music. The singing practice may benefit your mental health by providing social, cognitive, or psychological therapy. Music may help to reduce depression, anxiety, or stress. It is also highly therapeutic as a mature mental exercise.
Enjoy Nature Through Outdoor Hikes
For older adults in their 60s, going for long hikes, doing rigorous water sports, or spending long hours outdoors might not be ideal activities. Instead, you can consider going for short strolls in a nearby park, setting up bird feeders in your backyard, or cultivating a green thumb by growing colorful flowers and potted plants in your apartment.
If you want to engage in light physical activity, increase energy levels, boost physical health, and reduce stress. In that case, you cannot go wrong with spending some quality time in a natural environment. With all the health benefits you can reap by spending time with nature, you should aim to reconnect with nature.
Life Enrichment Programs Improve Your Mental Health
Discovery Village, Melbourne Place, offers our residents the best life enrichment programs. Enjoy daily activities, outings around town, arts & crafts workspace, game room, scheduled wellness classes, live entertainment, senior-safe fitness center, the in-house chapel with religious services, private courtyard & community garden, and many more life enrichment programs that can make your daily life more meaningful and purposeful or enriching. In the retirement community, there are live musical performances, lecture dialogues, games, and fitness activities to keep you busy. There are opportunities to explore nearby attractions, visit the in-house cinema for film viewing, and watch theatrical performances or sports competitions.
