Stress is modern man's nightmare disease the onslaught of which in comparison to other modern lifestyle syndromes is unparallel and massive and almost a majority of the modern health hazards and diseases are directly or indirectly related with the burgeoning Stress factors in modern life. Though stress is common irrespective of age group or other demographic determinations, senior citizens are particularly vulnerable to stress factors for a number of socio economic reasons and the health effects of Stress can particularly be fatal in aged population in their post retirement days. To manage stress after retirement one just cannot go on considering the stereotypes of stress management techniques, rather the problem needs to be addressed particularly from the perspectives common to the process of ageing and most common social perspectives present in aged population.
In regard to providing here some of the most appropriate techniques, processes and gross ways that are particularly relevant for relief and prevention of Stress in Post Retirement period we must adhere to the basic and most important notion that for a matured person working or being professionally occupied is more than just income and working is more about getting oneself occupied in positive undertakings that actually do not let the mind waver on things compulsively. So in regard to finding solution to manage stress after retirement the most important thing is to manage to spare the available time as productively and as merrily as possible. Sitting in the gloomy corner of the room or just seeking recourse to life outside through the monotonous movements on the television screen won't lead you anywhere except amounting to boredom and resulting stress.
Secondly managing your wealth and economic burden long before your retirement day is going to be crucial in this respect. Another important area of concern is managing relationship within and outside the family, because once you feel yourself always attended either by friends or family or relations, half the problem is solved. We all know that in respect of relationship we cannot all of a sudden come into terms with all in the same way and always there is a chance of our initiative going futile but we can at least take some positive steps and prevent the disastrous Stress factors to build up. Stress building factors would always be there, in futile quarrel with the neighbor or in the television real time news coverage of a terrorist attack or in the day to day boredom of not knowing how to beat the time in doing something meaningful, but before these common factors shape hilarious stress to take effect into your psycho somatic being you need to be cautious and plan all your living attributes accordingly. Here we present some suggestions and directions that can help you to manage stress after retirement and in doing so we will divide our discussion in some areas of life and living hood that are particularly important for a stress free life, especially in aged people.
Retirement is not the end to your working life
Many people tend to have a mindset that once they retire from their occupation and professional life their active life has just reached its ultimate and terminal stop from where the rest of the days of his or her life would be colorlessly shadowed and with the passing of every day gulf of boredom would envelop them that can only eventually lead into bad health and death. Though we always pretend to appear or proclaim different, but in reality actually this notion of taking retirement and post retirement days of aged population is too common. When you make yourself convince that your good old active working days are just over, you are voluntarily surrendering to Stress and boredom and all negative aspects that would have disastrous effect on both mind and body. Most effectively to manage stress after retirement first thing that you must do is to engage and involve yourself as completely as possible in one or two regular activities apart from the day to day activities in home. Here are some clues as to how many ways you can engage yourself in more relevant and fruitful activities to pass your post retirement days in a meaningful way.
Gardening, plantation and farming:
Many people throughout their life cherished the thought of coming close to nature and involving himself in simple activities that render the opportunity of doing good to nature and getting positive feedback as mental refreshment but among them actually a few really ventured to do something in that regard. There can be nothing so refreshing and enthralling as to making trees planted and seeing them grow and flower. From small flower and orchid beds to farming mushroom or seasonal vegetables in the nearby land, there can be innumerable ways to involve oneself in gardening, plantation and farming and once you begin to feel the attachment with your plantations and their scintillating green leaves and bright flowers, you can be sure of leaving all Stress factors far behind.
Playing a musical instrument:
Many people cherished a wish all through their life to play their favorite instrument for hours and hours long and immerse through the world of tunes and melodies afresh but, the stupendous burden of life could not make them attend to their own wishes and fantasies. No matter what you could do or could not do your post retirement days pose as the opportune moment for pursuing your unattended passion for music, there cannot be any better time than this and there cannot be any better way to manage stress after retirement, especially for people who have a tuned and passionate ear for music.
Past time art and craft and possibilities:
If you have a hand in art and craft of any type including any of the diverse fields as glass painting to wooden sculpture to sewing and designing cloth, any of these activities taken attentively and industriously for a specific time of your day can be enough rewarding and if your produces can attract some artistic or business interest from any corner, you eventually can face a late age possibility of becoming millionaire or becoming famous. Age is no bar for creative pursuits and your post retirement days are the time that you can lend an ear to your creative mind.
Studying and learning:
Maybe you have knack for learning a new language or harbor a wish for studying on aboriginal tribe in the nearby island or have a knack on environmental science, but really could not pursue your passion in the middle of hustle and bustle of professional life but how can you find a better time to study in complete peace of mind than the time that follows after your retirement. Engaging in a new leaning can be immensely rewarding in terms of mental peace and contentment.
Sporting activities:
Many people all through their turmoil of life in spite of their interest in simple yet rewarding sporting activities like swimming, cycling, running or biking could not pursue them for numerous restraints in their lifestyle. When you retire and if you are physically fit and if you have an uncanny knack in these sporting activities these can as well be your best partner for the rest of your life and can truly be rewarding and effective to manage stress after retirement.
Becoming a backpacker and wonderer:
Some people are born voyagers and even in their most cherished dream they only figure themselves to be travelling in distant mountains, unforeseen islands or over the orange gold sand dunes of desert. People of this sort would feel most rewarded if even in their post retirement days are given plenty of opportunities of touring around. Wondering amidst nature and new destinations, maybe just few miles off to your residence or far off, can really be enthralling and nothing can give so pacifying an effect as travelling. If you can physically and financially afford and if your toes tingle in the name of voyage, certainly while travelling your wonderer soul will find it as the best activity to manage stress after retirement.
Cooking and working with culinary delicacies:
I personally know a person who after retirement used to make delicious cookies and supply them to nearby coffee shops and restaurants and it for him a pleasant past time beyond so called monetary objectives, but now his variety of cookies made a brand name of itself and beyond the little hamlet of his residence it began to be popular even in some big shops of town. It is not just another hard earned success story but an example that even if you have an exceptional recipe or if you have a delicate sense of fine dining and cooking it can as well be your forte to start a new career after your retirement that is equally pleasant, creative and rewarding.
Monetary and financial concerns
However colorful and eventful or romantic you dream of spending your late days of life after your retirement, money and your financial strength is sure to be a deciding factor. If you have monetary worries and grave concerns regarding meeting the ends of your day to day living hood you are easy customer to Stress factors and sooner or later this would take its toll on you. If you are still young and while reading this article trying to gather some insights as to the techniques and fundamentals of how to manage stress after retirement, then you are in a position who can definitely take some appropriate measure to avoid such situation in the later period of life.
Being financially planned is to easy a recommendation that is really sweet for the ear and proportionately tougher for one to do so, especially in a situation when the market all over the world is becoming too unpredictable to trigger a bust and for a common man except the sheer dependence on chance nothing can work against such fatality. Taking the controversy on the viability and importance of financial planning apart, we all know that we need to save and invest in our working days for the retirement days, but the real point is when you are in economically in a troubled condition how far can you manage yourself so that eventually you do not end up being a victim of Stress and here we have some suggestions as to how laugh your heart out even when you are too burdened on financial matters.
Let yourself control situation, not the situation control you:
It is not going to be a dark idealistic philosophy or psychoanalytical rhetoric that we are going to offer here when we are talking of taking control over the situation. Just imagine those good old childhood days when even disasters could not make them shatter except when senior people terrorize them. It always happens like that, we feel terrorized and concerned out of losing the ground that we used to occupy and suddenly we come under pressure and that slowly begin to creep into taking the form of physical malfunction. If you are too concerned of what is likely to happen, you just cannot change the situation but let the situation slowly take control over you by making you feel stressed and remorse. When fighting out an inevitable situation is impossible, you can at least take it as inevitable and thereby can concentrate on somewhere else and refuse to be burdened by the thought of it and that is the wisest way of making all irreplaceable situations futile before your feet, yes, even while facing a financial downturn! Once you develop this outlook and attitude and begin to belief in it, to manage stress after retirement and becoming free of financial worries does never seem to have any importance.
Learn how being simple can be rewarding:
When you purchased your first apartment in the posh locality of the city, you thought it to be the beginning of what you love to call it, the adorning signs of success in life, but within a few years when all your so called adorning signs of success would feel your life with comfort and glitz, you suddenly can begin to feel lack of interest for day to day undertakings in life, in motivation and that is what precisely happens in many people at the helm of their so called professionally successful career. The story being seen from the other way round in people with lesser financial strength and buying capacity reveals the opposing perspective of striving for the same living standard and varying possessions. Until and unless you discover the passion for life and simple joys of life in things different other than so called possessions and treasures you are always vulnerable to Stress resulting from financial downturn. After a moderate planning if you can free your mind of these shackles of financial worry, it can be the best attitude for living life to the fullest extent even while your finance passes disastrous knocks.
Family and social relationships
When men fight in the war family gives them inner strength from within and becomes their sole motivation and in the history of mankind it is seen again and again that people who are backed by their family men in the worldly undertaking always perform and execute their duties better than others and many a war has been won and lost on that account alone. Similarly if your relationship and bondage with the family is not in proper shape and if you are constantly plagued on that account, at a certain point of time in your life it would definitely result in immense psychic Stress and so called harmony would tend to break apart. Especially in later age when people are supposed to spend greater portion of their time with the family and when naturally the company of family becomes too crucial for their life, to manage stress after retirement the role of family becomes most important. Here we would provide some important tips as to how to manage better relationship with the family, friends and neighbors.
Cut your expectation to a realistic measure:
Many people at a certain age, especially after their retirement tend to expect better company from the family members and expect them to tap their foot with his rhythm, but that cannot always be possible as younger people in contrast to the sensibilities of the elder people tend to respond to their world in a different fashion and they are more occupied with their own priorities than the old couples sitting at home. So when you expect less and cut your expectation of them to a decent realistic measure you would feel more relieved than usual and thus can avoid Stress.
Help family in their daily living hood:
Many retired people get bored in long hours they spend over newspaper or news channels but do not take least interest in the kitchen or in giving a nice company to the grandson or granddaughter and thus without knowing becomes victim of burgeoning stress syndromes. How to manage stress after retirement to involve in the regular family and living activities can be a better idea as this would not only provide a pleasant scope for nice past time but it would also strengthen the bondage and relationship within the family. Just a little bit of cooking or helping in preparing a dish, a little engaging affair with the plantations and trees in the garden or a little playing around with the kids is really refreshing. There cannot be any better idea to strengthen family bondage than to involve and engage with the family activities and to manage stress after retirement this one of the common ways.
Do not just hold on to the decision making position:
Many aged persons are seen to have an uncanny knack for the decision making in their family matters concerning each and everything and that often lead to the confrontation with other members of the family and thus make them succumb to mental anxiety and stress. Don't peep into each and every matter and do not just expect others to obey you and like your choices, rather be open and flexible to understand sentiments of others and let them take lead in decision making. You do not need to abstain yourself; rather you should very much involve with your suggestions, but at the same time you should avoid confrontation by letting others also take initiative.
Go for a small vacation with your family:
It has been observed that in a small trip or vacation with the family solves all the contradictions that for quite some time tend to become almost regular or frequent within the daily turmoil of living hood. It has been observed all over the globe that going in a trip in the open wide expanse of nature one can nurture apathy and sentimentality for each other in a family and much better than other occasions, especially because travel and vacation makes everyone in the family refreshed and invigorated from the daily stress of life.
Health and healthcare concerns
When people normally retire from their professional responsibilities they are already on the verge of reaching in their sixties and that is the most crucial age in regard to health care concerns and as per clinical study concerning many diseases and health disorders in that age only people tend to become subject to various health care challenges including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, etc. when they retire from job or full time profession causing a sudden drift in physical as well as mental activities. Here are some effective ways that you can consider in regard to preventing healthcare hazards.
Eat as per your health:
Most people after their retirement just as they begin to feel free with enough time for pursuing their personal wishes develop a habit of eating out and consuming more food stuff than earlier time, but in the age that follows after retirement body's consuming capacity continue to decrease and naturally in this period you have to be more cautious and calculative in respect of food consumption. Moreover if you cannot avoid taking spicy tasty mouth watering food stuff that are loaded with extra calorie and all hard to consume ingredients it can soon lead your health to immense complications and we all know the central role that health concerns play in causing both physical and mental stress to people in their post retirement days and this is the precise reason why to manage stress after retirement one needs to address the dietary issues first.
No compromise with rest:
Even when you are in a family gathering or in a occasion with charming faces everywhere you just cannot compromise your afternoon nap if you really feel refreshed with it. Resting time is something that needs to attend with utmost seriousness as with age we need frequent breaks to let the organic process regain its momentum. Another important thing is to never get really worked up or agitated even while it is pleasing you immensely in suddenly making you feel like the good old younger days of yesteryears, because your heart cannot cope up with the gushing speed of your movement always, especially after sixties.
Don't shut up about your health problems:
Many aged people irrespective of their frequent deterioration of health condition go on proclaiming themselves as fit to the friends and family as they hate to be seen as someone complaining every time about health and they love to be seen with the old days of vigor in their youth, but just think corresponding this sentimentality if you are to suffer a heart attack or stroke that could have been avoided with the medical advice and treatment in due time, are you not going to regret your decision in suppressing your health information to other members of the family. For a majority of ageing population all over the world medications and physicians are regarded as continuing friend and there is no harm in admitting this reality.
Make an habit of physical exercise:
Lack of physical exercise is intricately related with the aggravating health concerns all over the world and not only to manage stress after retirement but for all stress related problems in any age group physical exercise can be a crucial natural health solution. But when we talk on retired people in their sixties physical exercise can equally be refreshing and health productive in respect of reducing cholesterol level, reducing cardiovascular diseases, betterment of heart functioning, betterment of digestive and metabolic process, fighting diabetes and obesity and also for making nervous function better. So if you want to reduce healthcare concerns to live a stress free retirement life first thing that you should do is to engage yourself in jogging, running, swimming or cycling on a regular basis. Open air yoga initially following a yoga instructor can be immensely beneficial. Having long walk or strolling through the nature can be appropriate especially in the later age when you cannot undertake much physical exhaustion.
Don't compulsively think on health disorders all day long:
Many people in their post retirement days end up thinking on and discussing on diseases and medications every now and then and from any topic or self thought they compulsively return to it and slowly it takes the form of a grave concern and thereby stress and in the end ends up in causing various health complications. Remember thinking on diseases continuously can aggravate the deterioration of health, but on the contrary if you can be mentally free enough in not permitting the thought of diseases and medications in your conversations and thought and in leaving the use of medicine and consulting doctor in the corner of your daily routine just like any other day to day task, you obviously are less prone to this stress that born out of compulsive thinking on diseases and medications.
Spiritual inclination - awakening of body and mind
If a person is spiritually inclined and think better part of his day on the sublime and eternal things that overwhelms his mind with unexpressed joys, he can hardly can be the victim of stress like other people around him, but very few people in the world who either has a long drawn tradition of thinking on worldly things philosophically or few people having artistic exposure or another group of people who had a great spiritual or scholarly lineage, can attaining a certain maturity of thought come to such point of heavenly and esoteric experience. Yet that does not mean that the path of spiritual awakening and joy is just reserved for a few gifted souls, on the contrary it is open and inviting for everyone, but one needs to prepare oneself in body and mind to nurture that state of mind which receives such inner awakening. Let us here see how you can progress towards such a spiritual experience and how you can develop your inner spiritual longing or inclination that would not only be just handy to manage stress after retirement but would give you a new life and meaning.
Make a habit of doing meditation:
Meditation is just not a readymade technique or therapeutic drug to manage stress after retirement, rather contrary to popular belief meditation if practiced with the expectation of fast healing outcome cannot be effective at all. Meditation would only be effective if you know the secrets and processes of meditation and if you can pursue the path of meditation for a longer period of time and expect it to open great vistas of healing and mental peace only when you feel yourself to be in a different psycho somatic plane. If there is a nearby river stream or lake or jungle or a flat rock on a highland, these all can be the ideal place for meditation. Otherwise open air on the terrace or just on the balcony or beside the open window can be good places.
Closing your eyes in the so called calm sitting posture is not what meditation all about. As long as your mind is wandering here and there in thoughts and imaginations you are not meditating at all in spite of your repeated trying. Breath and concentrating on breathing or counting breath can be a nice tool for slowly pacifying your mind thus vacating it from incessant thought process. It is a matter of regular and constant practice and once you are completely tuned in concentrating on your breath you are into meditation and slowly you experience the calming of mind and its healing effects on the senses and body. Meditation pursued for years can reach you to a sublime and compassionate feeling about your world around and can really uplift your soul towards more dense and rewarding spiritual experience. Path is not far, though not close enough to reach overnight, you have to cling to it and that is the examination.
Have a here and now affair with nature:
More than meditation, yoga posture or any other obsessive pacifying and healing processes for body and mind, simple wandering in nature without any want or wavering thought and only concentrating on the nature's sounds and flowing, quivering life can leave you with stupefying realization and experience of joy. Wandering in nature if you can completely be free of your thoughts concerning your past days, your possessions, chain of events and relations and can completely be free of all thoughts concerning any moment whatsoever in future and can completely deep yourself in the ebb and flow of nature it can take you to a great spiritual experience and you never have to grope for so called ways to manage stress after retirement. There cannot be any better time and opportune age than these post retirement days to listen to the birds cuckooing with all your heart, see the scintillating flow of river and listen its rippling melody and watching the autumn leaves falling in silence.
Art is the gateway to spiritual experience:
More than daily prayer and so called rituals before the altar of the god to attain a spiritual state of mind that stays with you with all its pacifying effects on mind pieces of artwork and involvement in the study of artwork and their making can really be rewarding. We seldom feel the urge to go to the museums or art galleries or monuments or libraries with great collection of artworks in printed form or seldom listen attentively to the great musical compositions or seldom find time to immerse in great texts of profound meaning and beautiful expressions, but when find such time and immerse in this artistic exposures the experience becomes instantly rewarding. Can there be any better time for having an exposure to the works of art than the post retirement days? Once you experience the overwhelming effect it has on you will know that there is no stop and every day for you would be day of new and newer revelation and there cannot be any better way to manage stress after retirement.
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