Retiring and living in the best Rancho Mirage senior living community will give you plenty of free time on your hands to fulfill your bucket list. However, your retirement can only be good and exciting if you put in the effort of staying healthy and active.
One effective way of doing that is to engage in healthy hobbies that benefit your physical, mental, and social well-being.
As you grow older, hobbies and activities should have a constant presence in your day-to-day life. You can pursue your postponed passion when you were younger or discover a new one by actively participating in your community’s activities.
You don’t have to specifically do exercises to stay active or play games to keep the mind stimulated. There’s plenty of self-rewarding and fun hobbies that are healthy, engaging, and senior-friendly.
After all, it’s much easier to do something if you actually have a passion for it, right? You get to hone your skill and enjoy yourself, all the while keeping your overall well-being healthy.
So, here are six healthy hobbies that you can participate in to keep you active in your senior home!
1. Sports
Not every older adult enjoys doing fitness activities and workout routines in the morning. Some may struggle with keeping up with the steps, while others may get bored with the routine exercise they’re doing.
But don’t worry. There’s a great hobby that you can get into that will add excitement to your life and improve your physical health: it’s sports!
Sports activities help seniors enjoy being physically active by offering them an activity that challenges and engages them. Furthermore, it is a pursuit that every senior can participate in, regardless of current fitness level or experience. Some of the most fun and senior-friendly sports games you can try include:
- Swimming
- Bowling
- Golf
- Lawn Tennis and Table Tennis
- Badminton
- Squash
Become a member of your local sports club, join in friendly tournaments, or just schedule a weekly match with your fellow residents at your Rancho Mirage senior living community.
2. Dancing
If you love moving your body to the rhythm, then you can pursue dancing as both a hobby and a healthy form of exercise. According to science, dancing for at least 30 minutes every day enhances brain and heart health, strengthens the bones, and helps you maintain a healthy weight.
Moreover, dancing has been proven to reduce an elderly’s risk of developing brain disorders like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
But what sets dancing apart from other forms of exercise is its ability to reduce mental stress and provide social interaction. In addition, songs and musical rhythms have the power to stimulate the brain’s “reward region” (where the dopamine is), eliciting feelings of happiness and relaxation.
Sign up for a dancing class to know what type of dance you prefer. You can opt to start with Zumba, ballroom, boogie, or salsa. Partner up with your spouse, grandkids, or fellow residents.
3. Gardening
Being surrounded by nature—the green trees, plants, flowers, and occasional wildlife—can instantly put you in a calm and positive mood. But you don’t have to go out and find a nature park to do this. Instead, you can create your own sanctuary through gardening.
Gardening may seem like a challenging activity, but once you get used to it, you’ll find yourself yearning for soil to dig and a seedling to plant! Some of the many benefits you can reap by gardening include:
- Physical exercise when you rake, dig, and water your plants.
- Increased motor skills, stamina, and body coordination.
- Improved mood and mental space.
- Enhanced health as you breathe the fresh outdoor air or eat your nutritious produce.
- Helps develop a sense of achievement and fulfillment.
Additionally, current studies have proven that regularly tending to your garden can help you lose weight, especially around the belly. Start cultivating your green thumb by joining gardening classes for beginners in your Rancho Mirage senior living facility.
4. Reading
Staying active does not only mean exercising or pursuing a hobby that can improve your physical fitness. It can also mean doing activities that can help stimulate your brain and keep it active. One such incredible example is reading.
You might view reading as a traditional activity, but it has too many benefits to your overall health, making it too hard to pass up!
It is never too late to pick up a good book, and you surely are never too old. There are many genres available, so whether you like a funny rom-com or a medieval historical romance, you can have it.
Besides entertaining you for days on end, reading can improve your memory, concentration, thinking, and vocabulary. Furthermore, it can help ward off cognitive decline and even brain diseases.
5. Musical Class
Another hobby that can keep you mentally, physically, and socially active is music. Music alone can send you to complete relaxation and calmness; what more if you take it to the next level by learning an instrument or taking voice lessons?
Enrolling or joining a music class in your Rancho Mirage senior living can open you up to a lot of opportunities. You will get to hone your musical prowess, stimulate your mental faculties, and give you a chance to interact with musically inclined seniors like you.
Additionally, learning an instrument can help improve your motor skills and coordination. Plus, you’ll have loads of fun! So what’s not to love?
6. Caring for a Pet
Adopting and caring for a pet may seem like a small task, but it actually has a huge impact on your overall well-being. It is a purposeful and fulfilling activity that can also help you maintain an active mental physique.
In addition, having a pet means you also get to do a lot of running around, walking in the park, and playtime in the house. This will keep you physically active and reduce your risk of developing sedentary lifestyle diseases like heart disorders and hypertension.
Consider adopting or rescuing a four-legged furry companion if your Rancho Mirage senior living community allows pets in their facility, like Bayshire Rancho Mirage!
