Ingleside at Rock Creek Blog

10 Tips for Healthy Aging

Healthy Aging Month is a great time to review your health habits. Are you eating right? Exercising regularly? If not, you might think about establishing or re-establishing healthy routines. But healthy aging is about more than just physical health. It also encompasses mental, social and financial well-being—all of the aspects that keep us active and engaged.

Worthington says she was inspired to create September is Healthy Aging® Month to help dispel the myths, stereotypes and negative aspects of aging and reinforce the notion that “it’s never too late to get started on something new.”

Now is the perfect time to think about making positive changes, since we’re used to it—Fall is the season when we went back to school each year, Worthington points out.

Worthington suggests that, before the month ends, you take stock of where you are and think about what you’d really like to do—and do it!

“Who says you can’t start your own home business later in life, test your physical prowess, or do some­thing wildly different from anything you’ve done before?” she says.  “Only that person you see in the mirror!”

The Healthy Aging® website lists 10 tips for re-inventing yourself this fall. We’ve summarized them here. Visit the website for more details and more ways to celebrate Healthy Aging Month.

1. Don’t act your age! Picture yourself at the age when you think you were at your best, and hold that picture in your mind. Be that age again!
2. Be positive. If you feel like complaining about something, stop and think of a positive aspect of the situation.
3. Surround yourself with happy, positive, energetic people, and smile often. (That should be easy to do in your retirement community!)
4. Walk like a healthy person. Take a look at the way you walk. Can you hold your head up a little higher? Are you afraid of falling? Address any health issues that might have slowed you down.
5. Pay attention to your posture. Stand up straight, hold your stomach in, keep your shoulders back and chin up. Practice while looking in a mirror until it becomes second nature. You’ll not only feel better, but you’ll look trimmer.
6. Smile more often. Is there something that’s keeping you from smiling? Maybe you’re overdue for a trip to the dentist. If so, call and make an appointment.
7. Give your social life a boost. Pick up the phone and call a friend or family member. Volunteer your time. Take a class. Throw a party, or invite someone to have coffee or dinner. The editors of Healthy Aging® suggest volunteering at a local public school to stay in touch with younger people or taking a class to learn how to become a wizard on your smartphone or computer.
8. Walk more. Form a walking group with some of your neighbors if you need motivation. It’s more fun, too!
9. Set up your annual physical and other health screenings.
10. Get in touch with your inner artist or poet. Now’s the time to revisit a former love, like playing the piano, or to discover a new passion. Try your hand at painting, or start writing your memoirs.

Sign up for one of the many classes your community offers.