“We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.” – George Benard Shaw
Every day of our lives we have thoughts of planning for the future, for our families, savings, 401K, and life insurance. That way we can retire and live the remainder of our time comfortably with money, to do things with family and maybe travel. But do we really consider how we want those things to happen? Make sure to keep in mind of health and wellness, mental, and physical, and sexual health. What does quality of life mean to you? Is it the hope of good genes and things we don’t have control over? We all want to have control over our lives, body, and environment for as long as possible. The fact that the thought of having to give up anything in life because you cannot do it any longer is not even in your vocabulary.
I decided to ask a few of my clients and patients, what quality of life as they were aging meant? The answers were not shocking at all. As a matter of fact, the answers should be something that people of any age would find important to incorporate into their life. In no particular order, they mentioned overall health and wellness, sleep, having hobbies, visiting with family and friends, exercising that includes physical and mental, laughter and having fun, and last but not least, having a good intimate sex life. All of these had equal weight, except the family and friends component. That was the most important thing that was noted.
Overall health and wellness to them meant that they were eating nutritious foods, having doctor’s appointments, and taking medicines correctly. Getting good sleep was important to them for recovery from the day and to help mentally. Hobbies helped to continue to do things that they were passionate about, which they felt contributed to keeping them mentally sharp. Visiting with family and friends kept bonds and connections to loved ones to provide a support system, and discourage loneliness and depression. Exercises like walking, golf, yoga, dancing, and hiking were key, but water exercises seemed to be popular for less stress on the joints. Laughing and fun relieves stress and who doesn’t like to laugh! Having someone they could talk to about things in common and with a positive intimate sex life was just as important to them for quality of life and they felt that all the things listed above helped to enhance that part of their life.
This is the 3rd of 4 articles in researching the stereotypes of aging and I have found that the things we want as we age are no different than younger years, except we definitely know what we want and we want to live just as determined, as we did earlier in our life. In the last installment, I will share my own keys for quality of life. Visit me on FB @wholebodyfitnessandwellness
