Making Friends in Retirement: Tips for Meeting Like-Minded People
Ranfurly Village News
Maintaining friendships through adulthood can be downright hard work. Even just the issues around scheduling can easily make even the best of friends slowly fade away to acquaintances, especially if you move somewhere new.
Eventually, when you get to retirement you suddenly have all this free time to spend with your friends! Except, lots of people find that they have slowly lost touch with many of their friends from the past, or now live in such different places that it is difficult to maintain a meaningful relationship.
However, social interaction for seniors is really important. It is a great way to get out and about, and keep your mental and physical health in tip top shape. We recommend that it’s important to relearn the skill of making friends in your retirement.
Challenges and Solutions
There's a variety of things that can make it difficult to make friends as a senior. For starters, getting the opportunity to meet new people can be difficult, particularly if you have mobility issues. Try looking around your community for organised group activities. If you’re not physically able to do a sport like golf or lawn bowls, maybe you could try something like a writing or painting class.
Once you have the opportunity to go out and meet people, there can be additional hurdles in getting from a group scenario to making more meaningful friendships. These can come through differences in age or in levels of health. For instance, maybe your new friend really needs to be sitting down most of the time, but you love pottering out and about in the garden.
What about combining activities you both love with adaptations for making things more comfortable and accessible. For instance, maybe you garden, while your friend sits near you in the shade on a garden chair and provides help with their suggestions on how to space out your flowers.
Local Opportunities
Highlight the various social activities and community groups within Ranfurly Village where residents can meet like-minded individuals.
Broadening Horizons
It is important to broaden your horizons and try something new, when making new friends. Go to an event not specifically targeted towards those of retirement age. This might look like volunteering at your local pet shelter, or helping to stock the community food bank.
You can also join local clubs, even if you join in a non-physical capacity. Maybe your local sport team needs a scorekeeper, or a sitting referee. Maybe you can knit for local charities, and make connections that way.
Digital Friendship
We mentioned before that one of the hurdles often faced by seniors looking to make friends who struggle to leave their home is difficulty accessing social environments. In these cases, the digital age can be a lifesaver.
It does come with a bit of a steep learning curve, but if you can get a phone or tablet working it allows you to chat with family and friends, as well as getting access to new communities.
Just make sure to get up to date on how to keep yourself safe on the internet, and never, ever give out any personal information online.
Expert Opinions
Research performed on over 9,000 seniors in Japan found that an active social life is good for more than just keeping the blues away. It also helps to slow the effects of neurodegenerative diseases more common in the elderly, like dementia.
This is through increasing the activity in the brain, where the apt mantra is if you don’t use it, you lose it. Social activity was also found to be great for preventing depressive symptoms, and maintaining physical health.
Conclusion
It’s pretty clear that social engagement is great for retirees, and this should be a real focus when choosing what retirement community you want to move into when the time comes.
Ranfurly Village is a great choice for social activity, as they have the Poppies Cafe for having a good meal with friends or family, as well as lounges for relaxed socialising, and even a craft room for picking up a new skill in!
If you think that a socially engaged and vibrant community like Ranfurly Village is right for you or your loved one, share this article with them, and encourage them to get in touch with our friendly team to hear more about how we can help.
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