Can a Retirement Community Decrease Stress?
Stress is a part of daily life, but unmanaged stress can lead to a list of mental and physical health complications. For adults entering retirement, they can put down the stress of a busy work day and professional to-do list. However, that doesn’t mean that all stress goes away during retirement.
Fortunately, there are ways retired adults can mitigate the stress that is still in their lives. Believe it or not, the right retirement community can be a crucial part of that plan. Can a retirement community decrease stress? Absolutely. Here are just a few ways residents can breathe a sigh of relief once they move in.
Dangers that Come with Stress
The right amount of stress can lead us to feel accomplished, more energetic, and ready to take on the world. However, if we don’t alleviate that stress after a specific situation, our bodies never stop feeling like they are stressed out. Too much unchecked stress can lead to serious changes in the body and in behavior. For example, stress has been linked to conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, headaches, anxiety, and heart disease.
Older adults will often see these conditions, but stress can also manifest as insomnia, depression, or brain fog. Stress for older adults might not come from fulltime professional obligations, but might instead come from worries about health conditions, upcoming medical procedures, loss of relationships, or financial worries, just to name a few.
Stress Relief at a Retirement Community
The right retirement community can provide a haven for residents, giving them a break from certain life stressors. Amenities and services at retirement communities are designed to make health and wellness more convenient, and to take away stress by taking away the tasks and chores they might otherwise have to complete if they were living elsewhere.
How can a retirement community decrease stress?
Predictable budgeting
Living at a retirement community often reduces the financial stressors of retirement thanks to a predictable monthly fee. The monthly fee often charged by senior living communities includes nearly everything from rent to utilities to amenities. Residents find this simplified approach easier as they continue to plan for the future.
Maintenance-free lifestyle
Residents at retirement communities enjoy a maintenance-free lifestyle, which means they no longer need to stress about keeping up with home maintenance or housekeeping. Instead, they can use that energy to focus on something that brings them joy, not a sense of responsibility.
Convenient amenities
Perhaps the best part of living in a retirement community is the access to amenities and resources that make life so much more convenient. Perks like onsite physician office hours, mail delivery, salon, and chapel means less stress due to scheduling, driving, or parking.
Support and assistance
Life Plan Communities like The Glen provide a full continuum of care for residents. This means that we offer multiple retirement living solutions all on one campus: independent living, assisted living, memory care, and healthcare. Residents can receive the support and assistance they need, whenever they need it, without moving to a different community. This can provide peace of mind and less stress when thinking about the future, especially if there are chronic medical conditions in play.
Social connections
One of the best ways to decrease stress? Talking about it with a supportive friend. At retirement communities, social connections between neighbors are easy to make over a shared meal or experience. These meaningful friendships and casual peer connections lead to significant stress reduction.
Family relationships
Finally, family relationships can become stressful as the family matriarch or patriarch gets older. The strain of family caregiving or advocating can sometimes lead to adult children feeling more like a caregiver than a child, causing stress within the family dynamic. A retirement community alleviates that stress by giving family members the gift of peace, knowing someone at the community is there to provide assistance in case of an emergency.
Ready to reduce your stress and enhance your lifestyle? A retirement community could be the answer. Contact us at The Glen to schedule your tour.