The Benefits Of Lifelong Learning For Older Adults

Comedian George Burns once quipped that “You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old.” While this statement was said in jest, the underlying wisdom masked in these words is undeniable. Age is an irrelevant number if you choose to spend your retirement years keeping your mind youthful.
We can try to keep our bodies as healthy as possible as we grow older, but it will do what it wants, regardless of how hard we try to slow the aging process. That’s the bad news. The good news is that if we keep a healthy brain, age rarely matters. Research shows that the brain ages slower than the rest of the body, meaning that cognitive functions can remain strong despite signs of physical aging.
Keep Your Brain Healthy
There are many factors that determine brain health including proper diet, getting enough sleep, being physically active and making smart lifestyle choices. One of the most effective ways of keeping your brain young is through the cognitive engagement of learning new things or skills that help the brain to function efficiently. When you learn something new, you help strengthen neural connections which helps to prevent brain atrophy.
What you choose to learn is not the important thing. It can be attending a cooking class, joining a book club, volunteering at a local organization that you support or many of the other things that you never had time before to discover and explore. What is important is your commitment to keep your brain active as you get older. The axiom of “use it or lose it” is especially applicable to brain health. Seniors that spend their retirement years committed to a process of continual learning experience high levels of cognitive resiliency that can reduce the risk of many forms of dementia.
You Are Never Too Old To Think Young
The desire to learn new things or to acquire new skills does not diminish with age. If anything, the potential for learning can expand exponentially during your retirement years because you now have the free time and wherewithal to do the things you always imagined. The adage that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” may apply to your pets, but the opposite is true for older adults. Research studies report that many older adults enjoy expanding their mental horizons and cite lifelong learning as a fun way to stay healthy in body and mind.
Lifelong learning has many other benefits. If you join a club or take a new class, you will have the opportunity to interact with other like-minded people. This will enable you to avoid the pitfalls of social isolation that causes anxiety and depression in many older adults. Your emotional well-being will also be reinforced because learning something new or enhancing a skill is an ideal way to boost your self-esteem and savor a sense of accomplishment. Rather than feeling “left behind” as the world turns, you will experience the joy of being in step with all that life has to offer.

Be Open To New Experiences
The transition into retirement years can be a struggle for some seniors. Many older adults have reservations about learning something new because they fear it might be too difficult a task at their age. Fortunately, this is a myth that has been debunked by medical experts. Research concludes that older adults are about as good at learning as younger people. In fact, many of the cognitive changes that occur with aging give older adults a learning advantage. People who have reached their senior years have acquired more knowledge and deeper insights into real life situations that help them make smarter decisions. Seniors that engage in continual learning are better able to maintain this high level of mental acuity because it exercises their brains and keeps their minds sharp.
Age really is just a number. The joy of learning has no expiration date. Your retirement can be a wondrous time full of new experiences just waiting to happen that enable you to become the new, better version of yourself. Take a chance. Be brave enough to learn something new because the worst thing that can happen is you will be bad at something you truly love and enjoy doing.