When you retire, you may be confronted with a new problem—an enviable problem to be sure, but a problem nonetheless: the problem of having so much free time?
Life before retirement is busy. You barely have enough time to handle all your responsibilities and duties. In addition to work, you may be responsible for cooking and shopping, raising the kids, taking care of your home, paying bills, fixing the house and the car, and much, much more.
Free time can feel like a luxury you can’t afford.
Then comes retirement. Suddenly, you have time to yourself.
How should you spend all this new free time?
One rewarding option is to take care of yourself by doing enjoyable activities and hobbies that are good for your health in your older years. Here are two.
1. Taking College Classes
Most people who go to college do so in their early twenties. Typically, they’re highly impressionable, unused to living independently, confused about what they want to do with their lives.
Young people tend to have a particular perspective on education. They may love what they study, but they may look at studying as something they have to do rather than something they choose.
Taking classes after retirement is a different experience.
Whether you live on your own, with family, or in age-in-place residences like Oakville retirement homes, you’re free to learn for the sake of learning and learn whatever you choose.
Some colleges make it easy for alumni to take classes. Colleges also often offer affordable options for ageing adults.
It’s pretty simple and affordable for an ageing person to enroll in post-secondary classes, even if they don’t have a post-secondary degree.
And learning in your older years is healthy. Indeed, education may delay the onset of dementia.
2. Learning a Musical Instrument
It’s never too late to learn how to play a musical instrument, and the process is quite simple.
First, choose any instrument you’d like to play—really, any instrument, even the didgeridoo. Second, find a music teacher or enroll in music classes. Third, practice your instrument of choice and have fun.
Just like taking college classes in your younger years is different than taking college classes after you retire, so too is learning a musical instrument.
If, for instance, you took guitar or piano lessons when you were young, your experience might have been stressful, even gruelling. Perhaps your parents enrolled you in music lessons because they wanted to provide you with a musical education, or perhaps you chose to enroll in music lessons because you wanted to beef up your college applications.
After you retire, however, you’re free to take musical lessons purely for your pleasure.
And to make things even better, playing music in old age comes with a slew of health benefits. Those who are creative in their old age show improved mood, confidence levels, and morale, as well as lower rates of anxiety, stress, and depression.
In other words, learning a musical instrument in your older years can be both a happy and healthy way to spend your newfound free time. The same holds for taking post-secondary classes.
