There are several elements involved in senior wellness which are the main determinants of an adult’s health and wellbeing. Understanding these elements is important to leading a healthy lifestyle, which can result in a great quality of life. Below are seven core elements of an aging adult’s wellness that you need to understand.
Physical Wellness
The physical well-being of an aging adult involves several activities such as regular physical exercise, proper dieting, and other healthy habits. Engaging in physical activities, regular medical checkups, resting properly, and preventing falls and injuries as an adult can help to enhance the quality of life.
Emotional Wellness
The emotions of your elderly loved ones can greatly impact their mental health, which is why a retirement community will organize fun events that can help to elevate an aging adult’s mood. Emotional wellness simply means the ability to feel and express human emotions, such as happiness, sadness, love, and others. It is important to always let go of negative feelings and embrace optimism, high self-esteem, and self-acceptance to enhance emotional wellness.
Intellectual Wellness
This is also another component of senior wellness that influences mental health. The mind needs to be exercised just as much as the body, through the help of stimulating and creative mental activities. Intellectual wellness helps to improve one’s wellness and reduce the rate of forgetfulness, which is common in aging adults. Activities such as reading, taking short courses, and arts can help to achieve optimal intellectual wellness.
Social Wellness
This is the ability to interact with peers and in your community while respecting yourself and others. Social wellness includes the ability to bond with family members and create a network of friends. For optimal social wellness, aging adults have to cultivate the habit of building healthy relationships through good communication. This includes sharing thoughts and feelings, contributing to the community to build up a sense of purpose and belonging, and expressing ideas.
Spiritual Wellness
Having laid down rules, principles and values can help to give aging adults a sense of direction. The sense of direction and purpose comes from the level of belief, hope, and how well committed one is to the beliefs. This also includes the eagerness to seek a purpose in one’s life and the appreciation of human existence. Spiritual wellness can be determined by how an adult can establish peace and harmony in their lives.
Environmental Wellness
This is an awareness of one’s responsibility when it comes to the unstable nature of the earth and how your daily habits can affect it. This involves the ability to make a positive impact in minimizing harmful substances in the environment. Gardening is a good physical activity that can promote physical wellness, as well as environmental wellness. Water conservation, reduction of chemical use, and recycling are other ways to achieve optimal wellness as an aging adult.
Occupational Wellness
After retirement, aging adults often desire to contribute positively to society by using their skills. Occupational wellness can help to give aging adults a sense of achievement, purpose, and fulfillment. This allows them to maintain a positive attitude throughout their golden years, especially those in an assisted living community. Participating in charity programs and learning new skills such as knitting to make sweatshirts for children, are ways aging adults can achieve occupational wellness after retirement.
