by T.Yeap

Created on: September 11, 2009   Last Updated: September 12, 2009

You have worked hard all your life and now it's time for retirement and enjoying the things you like to do and keep an active lifestyle. A lot of retirees are quite lost after retirement because they claim that they feel empty and bored because they are so used to the regular 9am to 5pm work life. Therefore, it's important to have an active social life after retirement and enjoying your time with your loved one or your fellow friends. Of course there will be some difference for men and women when choosing the types of activities that they like to do together and separately. With my working experience with the elderly populations, I've gathered some good ideas for the retirees and/or future retirees.

1) TRAVEL TOGETHER AND TRAVEL SEPARATE

I'm sure there's plenty of places you've always wanted to go but your partner has to work or you can't just take the time off while you were working. Now, it's the time to do so, you can either travel with your partner and find other retired couples in your friends network to go experience the vacation together. Your vacation doesn't have to be expensive. It can just be a simple road trip to the surrounding state, or you can go visit your children or grandchildren that are out of state. If money is not the problem, travelling abroad will let you experience other culture and its historic background. It is also advised to travel separately from your partner from time to time because you will be spending a lot of time together after retirement and may drive each other crazy.

2) PICK UP A NEW HOBBY

Many of us know that when we get older, our ability to learn new task decrease. So, keeping the brain stimulated will be a good idea by picking up a new hobby such as golfing (favorite leisure activities for the retirees I've work with), or joining a water aerobic class for women to keep them physically fit. You can also join different class around the community college for adults to learn carpentry, foreign language, mechanics, or painting. There's plenty to choose from and I'm sure there's one that you'll like. Not only you will meet new friends, and you get to pick up a new traits that maybe useful later on.

3) VOLUNTEER WORK

According to an article published on Mayo Clinic: January Issues of Women's Healthsource, volunteering is good for the elderly. Older people that volunteer experience lower rate of cardiovascular disease and live longer comparing to their peers that do not volunteer. Social connections helps to lower the stress level and provides a sense of contributions to the society and gives the retirees a sense of purpose since depression are very common among the seniors citizen. You can volunteer at the local seniors' center, hospital, nursing home, or retirement community to volunteer just one or two hours per week. If you are adventurous, you can volunteer with your convent and travel abroad to third world country to provide your expertise to the less fortunate.

4) START YOUR OWN CLUB

Starting a social club according to your own interest will also help you keep in touch with your friends. It can be a bridge club, a book club, a garden club and/or a sports club. Meeting with your friends once a week, every other week or once a month to discuss your favorite subjects, it can be watching a game together, exchanging ideas on your garden, or just playing games together will help fill up the free times you have.

Retirement can be very exciting and fun if you know how to spend your time to enjoy the activities that you like to do.

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