“Retirement: A Time To Enjoy All The Things You Never Had Time To Do When You Worked.” – Catherine Pulisfer.
Retirement is referred to as the golden period of one’s life. After all, it finally gives you time to enjoy all the things that you never could because of your professional life and other engagements. Remember how many times you just wanted to skip work and do things that you loved, maybe traveling around the world, going to movies with the love of your life, or enjoying a picnic with your family and friends.
However, you had to suppress your wishes for the sake of your professional life. Now that you have retired and bade farewell to long, tiring work hours, it’s time for you to take the leap and let your carefree inner child take over your life. You should also connect with your Ikigai, or reason for being, and add life to your golden years.
But, to focus your attention on all these things, you also have to work on stress management. Otherwise, stress may hinder you from enjoying your golden time. Yes, retirement doesn’t eradicate stress from your life. No doubt, you don’t have to bear work stress anymore, but other stressors can certainly bother you, and frankly speaking, they do.
Loneliness, Health issues, the fear of aging, and financial stress all can take a toll on you. Although it is near impossible to live an absolute stress-free life, you can prevent stressors from ruining your golden years with stress management. Some examples are by having a robust savings prepared for your retirement and having life insurance for seniors.
Do you know what the difference between people who shine under pressure and those who buckle under pressure is? The answer is— their ability to manage stress.
In a world where stress is everyone’s constant companion, it is best to not try to create a stress-free life but to develop your resilience against stress. If you know how to manage stress, it loses its power to bother you, and you can live your retirement years, carefree and bubbling with joy, like a child. Now, let’s proceed to discuss five stress management tactics to boost your resilience.
5 Stress Management Tactics for Retirees:
1. Find Your Ikigai and Pursue It:
Did you know that a common thing among the Centenarians of Japan is that they never retire? Yes, that’s absolutely true. They retire from their 9 to 5 professional life but they never retire from work. They keep practicing their Ikigai. ‘Ikigai’ means your reason for being. For some centenarians, it is painting; for others, gardening, crafting, etc.
Their Ikigai helps them experience the psychological state of flow, where the ego dissolves, a sense of time vanishes, and deep enjoyment takes place. This deep enjoyment burns all worries and triggers a deep sense of inner bliss.
For stress management during your retirement years and living with gusto, you should find your Ikigai and pursue it. The key to finding your Ikigai is to follow your drifts. Ask yourself where your attention goes in your free time. It may be dancing, singing, drawing, writing stories, anything.
2. Join a Social Group:
In the words of Rollo May, “No one can separate themselves from one’s social group and remain healthy because the very structure of personality is dependent upon the community.” These words truly highlight the importance of having social connections in our life.
Without a social circle, we feel lost and incomplete; after all, as humans, we are social creatures. The years of retirement often bring clouds of loneliness with them. You no longer get to see your colleagues and office friends. Isolation can create a different kind of stress in your life.
So, it is better to join a social support group where you can interact with people, share your emotions, create funny moments and laugh together. According to research, social support can minimize the effects of stress and also reduce your risk of mortality. Isn’t that amazing? Furthermore, irrespective of our age group, we need friends to bring life into our lives.
Your social group will help you make close friends with whom you can again sail on the enchanting journey of friendship. Now, don’t wait any longer. Just go ahead, make friends, play, dance, sing and laugh with them just as you did when you were young. Are you wondering how to join a social group or make friends? Given below are some effective ways to do so:
How to make friends?
a. Join hobby classes: There is no better way of making friends than joining a hobby class. Why? Because hobby classes offer two-way benefits. One, you can engage in something that you are passionate about and two, you can quickly make friends as it is easy to connect with people having similar interests.
b. Join a Fitness club: It is important to focus on your fitness throughout your life, especially during later stages. You should join a fitness club to keep yourself robust as a retiree and connect with different people.
c. Join Social media communities: Do you use social media? I’m sure your answer is a big yes. So, why not use it to your advantage by joining social media communities of your interest. If you are passionate about cooking, join a cooking club and show your talent to the world, and so on. Participate in engaging discussions, share ideas and build an impactful online presence.
3. Secure Yourself by Purchasing Suitable Insurance:
Imagine what kind of a life it would be if you knew that a genie was protecting you against all unforeseen expenses. Wouldn’t you feel secure and absolutely relaxed? Obviously, you would. And that’s exactly what insurance can do for you. Don’t spend your retirement years either saving money for or worrying about unforeseen circumstances.
Buy suitable insurance, sit back, relax and enjoy your golden time. Auto insurance (click here to know more), life insurance, travel insurance and property insurance are some types of insurance that you should definitely buy. Once you secure yourself in all respects with suitable insurance, you’ll experience great relief. A huge baggage of stress will get lifted from your shoulders.
4. Try Body Manipulation:
‘Body manipulation’ involves subtle forms of exercise that do not stress or strain your muscles. Body manipulation also offers similar stress management benefits as traditional forms of exercise such as walking, cycling, and running. Tai Chi, Yoga, Massage, and Reiki are some examples of body manipulation.
You are already aware of the magic of a good massage, right? It helps you relax, brings you into the moment, triggers a deep sense of enjoyment, and calms your mind. All the above-mentioned body manipulation techniques have similar effects. They can also reduce your blood pressure, enhance mental capacity and improve conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Try them once, and you’ll be motivated to avail yourself of the associated benefits over and over again.
5. Optimize Your Mental Well-Being With Meditation:
“The goal of meditation isn’t to control your thoughts. It’s to stop letting them control you.” Our mind is like an immense ocean of thoughts. You can get drowned in it, and frankly, we stay drowned in that ocean most of the time. Once you retire and have plenty of time to yourself, your mind may start getting bombarded with thoughts all the time. And sadly, most of these thoughts are negative.
Research has shown that we tend to focus more on the negative across a wide array of psychological events as we try to make sense of the world. This negative bias can negatively impact your mental health, triggering anxiety, stress disorders, depression, and other psychological disorders. To prevent negativity from ruining your golden years, consider meditating.
Meditation boosts your resilience and teaches you the art of letting your thoughts go so they will no longer exert control over your life. It is proven that meditation reduces stress, anxiety, promotes emotional health, and reduces age-related memory loss.
Along with this, it also has enormous physical health benefits. It can reduce blood pressure, heart rate and ease digestive issues. You should definitely incorporate meditation in your life. There is nothing much to do. Just sit in a quiet room, play a guided meditation video and relax.
Stress management is imperative to live an enjoyable and fun-filled retirement life. Your whole life, you have battled stress in various forms. Now that you have retired, you should try to minimize it. As it is not possible to eradicate stress completely, it is best to manage it with the help of stress management tactics.
The above-mentioned stress management techniques will help you maximize joy in your retirement years. Now, wishing you All the best and happy life ahead! Remember to make the most of your golden time, and don’t hold yourself back. Let your child side out and live completely!