How to Keep a Healthy Mind After Retirement

According to WHO, being healthy is not merely the absence of disease; rather it is being in a position of good health in all aspects of life including mental, physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual. Unfortunately most people ignore the mental health and only get concerned when they get to be insane or know people who completely lose their mind.

In this case, we are referring to mental health that is expected of everyone and that comes by providing exercises to the mind or brain. It is in the same way that you may not be experiencing diabetes or arthritis but you keep the physical body fit by going to the gym and eating well. The mind also needs such wellness and it takes such effort to keep it fit.

During old age or retirement, this need becomes even greater as the engagement of the brain becomes less. You can imagine a business executive who has kept the brain under stress for more than 50 years of managing people and processes in an airline company and now only has to think about a few things. This sudden drop in activities for the brain is what often leads to dementia and also contributes to suicidal tendencies. This is why there is an urgent need to think of ways to keep the brain busy and therefore have a healthy mind.

What is the risk of not keeping a healthy mind?

The danger that lurks in the event that this concern for healthy mind is not heeded is that of developing even more scaring diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. This is also commonly known as dementia and can lead to complete loss of ability of the brain to process issues. One can become mentally retarded to the extent of not being able to perform activities done by toddlers despite being in active age bracket.

While Alzheimer’s disease can be caused by bacterial infections, the initial environment that allows such easy attack of the disease is caused by lack of exercises for the brain or mind. This article therefore provides tips on how you can improve on your mental exercises. These are exercises that do not need any special machine or an expert guiding you. You can do them at home or with friends in a club while relaxing. They do not have to cost you much money and they have lasting impact on the brain development or rejuvenation.

The exercises proposed are as simple as reading newspaper or magazine daily, playing scrabble or a puzzle, learning anew skill or language or going out on safaris

Five things you can do to keep a healthy mind.

Below are a select five most effective methods of keeping the brain and your mind active even during retirement. These have been found to be successful among most people who have retired and have practiced them.

1. Keep your lifestyle the same: if you always worked between 8am and 5pm, you need to find some activities that you can do at these same hours. This could including training for basket ball, supporting kids in rehabilitation school or dong a computer game. Of course these may not be done in 8 continuous hours but can be varied every other two hours or less depending on your ability to concentrate. This also includes the hours for taking breakfast, taking a walk with your dog or any other activity that you routinely did.
2. Travel: this is a god way to stimulate your mind especially when you are visiting places that you have never visited before. You could also purpose to include some charity work while on a safari. This can take on your area of skill such as going to paint classrooms on a ten day visit to Africa.
3. Watching over your assets and building capital: if you have invested in a business then this becomes a very good way of keeping your mind active and avoiding dementia.
4. Spend time with grandchildren or children: this depends on whether you are a family man. Taking time to watch over your grand children would help your children save money while you keep your mind active. However make sure that you make it known that you are in it for only a short period and therefore the nannies need not be sent away.
5. Be part of a fitness program: this could be a group that is involved in playing golf or dancing or yoga. The group has the benefit of motivating you not to miss out and also you are able to chat together as peers. You may find your age mates of former colleagues and therefore you can go down the memory lane.

In conclusion

Keeping  a healthy mind is as important as keeping a healthy physical body. It is something that you ought to consider and make deliberate moves to make it happen. Even when it costs a little money, the benefits far surpass the cost because it helps you save money that would have gone into treating depression and dementia.