September: Healthy Aging Month

September Healthy Aging 2015 front SMPromoting personal responsibility for your health

Let’s face it: who likes to age? Our face wrinkles, our chins sag, our muscles ache more easily, and our middle sections expand more and more each year. Is there a bright side to aging? The answer is YES! That’s what Healthy Aging Month is all about—a time to focus on the positive aspects of growing older as well as to give inspiration and encouragement to adults over 50 to improve their physical, mental, social, and financial health. It’s never too late to make the most of our older years!

In our September Community Resource Bulletin, we give various suggestions based on four types of wellness:

Physical Wellness

  • Exercise: Not only will it help you feel better better, those sags may just disappear, too!
  • Eat right: OK, you’ve heard it before and know you should eat a balanced mix of healthy foods every day to prevent heart disease, stroke, bone loss, and all sorts of other ailments

Mental Wellness

  • Keep your mind sharp by reading, learning a new skill, and researching something you didn’t know about before
  • Develop a hobby: it’s never too late to learn to play a musical instrument!

Social Wellness

  • Give your time by volunteering with your church or civic group
  • Get back in touch with friends and family you haven’t spoken with or written lately; you’ll feel so good when you re-connect with them

Financial Wellness

  • Save green by going green try taking public transportation; most offer senior discounts (Transportation Resources to Aid the Disadvantaged and Elderly in Mercer County and Burlington County Paratransit Service in Burlington County, NJ)
  • Use coupons at the grocery and try home delivery for staples you may use over and over (Amazon has a great subscription service)

For these and other tips on aging well (Stay Healthy–Stay Independent!, Tips for Keeping Your Memory Sharp, The Importance of Keeping Mentally, Physically, and Socially Active, and Ways to Double Your Dollar), download our September Community Resource Bulletin. Visit our List of Local Resources for transportation resources in our NJ area.

Visit www.healthyaging.net for more ideas on Healthy Aging!