Healthy Aging And Your Social And Physical Environment
Healthy aging is achievable. How easy to achieve it, however, is highly relative. For some, it comes naturally, while other people will have to struggle to make it possible. One of the factors that either help or deter a person from achieving healthy aging is environment, whether it is the physical or social one.
Healthy Aging And How It Is Determined By One's Environment
Socialization is key to achieving healthy aging. By socialization, we do not mean heavy partying or bar hopping to meet people. More appropriately, we apply socialization to the process of inter-acting with people towards productive pursuits like hobbies, leisure activities, charity or community work, or social causes. Socialization to achieve healthy aging is relating with people in stress-free and healthy settings.
Joining a bird-watching group allows us some needed exercise and sunshine, while giving us the opportunity to experience the healing and relaxing touch of nature. Engaging in charitable activities like feeding the poor in soup kitchens makes us more grateful for what we have, while allowing us to meet new friends and interesting people. Or, when we take on a social cause like campaigning against whale hunting, we gain a chance to actively and meaningfully participate in social issues, while expanding our social circle.
There is nothing that deters us from socializing with the end of attaining healthy aging. We all have the freedom and the power to choose our activities, the circle of friends we keep and the company of people we seek. In other words, healthy aging through a healthy social environment is highly and easily attainable for all of us.
Healthy Aging And How The Physical Environment Affects It
The physical environment, on the other hand, is not something within our total control. However, we can assess our surroundings and then, take necessary steps to cope with it so that in the long run, healthy aging is still possible for us.
Some of us may have been unfortunate enough to live in a violence-ridden neighborhood, which increases their risk of being hurt, traumatized or stressed and therefore decreases their chances at achieving healthy aging. Or, some may be residing in a polluted area of town. Still, others may have neighbors who are troublesome or noisy, making sleep and rest impossible at night.
For the first and second scenario, the best option is to relocate. However, if this is not possible, we may achieve peace of mind by securing our houses to protect us and our families from the bad elements. Likewise, we can assure our safety by avoiding going to places in the neighborhood that are extremely risky, or going out around the area alone at night.
For the third scenario, we can be friendly and cordial even with difficult neighbors. Then, it will be easier to talk to them about keeping down the noise when it is time for us to rest. All these are specific scenarios but there may be a lot more. The point is, there is a way to cope with every stress caused by our physical environment, to make aging healthy more achievable.
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