Month: November 2017
Linking Generations
Connections between generations are proven to enrich the lives of both young and seniors in long-lasting and meaningful ways.
When young people find ways to engage and develop relationships with the elderly, these experiences can build self-esteem, develop leadership skills, and encourage a lifelong commitment to volunteering.
For seniors, intergenerational connections provide the opportunity to transfer knowledge and wisdom, acknowledge self-worth, and feel they are contributing members of society.
In today’s world, many young people are experiencing less interaction with seniors because of homogenous neighborhoods, dispersed extended families, and increasing segregation of seniors living in care facilities or in isolation
Some of the benefits of intergenerational work include:
- Creation of age friendly communities.
- All generations have a lot to both teach and learn from each other and contribute to lifelong learning.
- Tackles issues around stereotyping and ageism.
- Increases understanding and respect between older people and younger people.
- Chance to make new friends and combats social isolation.
Healthy Mind, Healthy Body
As you get older, keeping your mind active and healthy can become a big challenge. Your mental abilities generally decrease with age, particularly if your brain is not stimulated much. If your mind is not healthy and active in later life, you can have an increased chance of developing dementia (otherwise known as Alzheimer’s Disease). As well as age, your mental abilities can be affected by medical conditions and any medication that you are on to treat these.
A healthy mind can work wonders for improving your general health. Nutrition is believed to play a key role in keeping your mind healthy and active, and a good diet is essential for maintaining your general health. Recommended nutrition for an active mind includes fresh fruit and vegetables, salads, an adequate amount of carbohydrates and plenty of water (and fluids in general).
Some experts have suggested that several of the mental changes that were originally believed to be the result of getting older are actually caused by your lifestyle. This means that making the effort to keep your mind active and healthy through regular stimulation can have definite benefits for your mental abilities.
This can involve going back into education, taking home study courses, involving yourself in a new hobby or interest, doing stimulating puzzles (such as crosswords and Sudoku), playing games that require you to think (such as Scrabble or chess), reading books , exercising on a regular basis and using brain-training programs.
How to Improve and maintain your mental wellbeing
Mental Muscle
Mentally strong kids turn into resilient adults who are equipped to tackle whatever life throws their way. Challenges, hardship, and setbacks are inevitable. Teaching kids to build mental muscle can make them resilient. It’s also the key to helping them reach their greatest potential in life.
Here’s three things you can do to help equip your kids for the future.
- Teach your kids to think realistically
Children need to develop healthy self-talk. Simply thinking positive isn’t the solution, this doesn’t prepare children for real-life challenges. A child who can reframe negative thinking by coming up with a solution is more resilient. For example, instead of saying I’m going to fail that physics test, a resilient child will tell herself I can pass this test by
Teach children to challenge their negative thoughts and prove themselves wrong.studying hard and asking for help.
- Teach your kids to manage their emotions
A national university students found that more than 60 percent of young people don’t feel emotionally prepared for the realities of life. They lack the skills to deal with uncomfortable emotions, like loneliness, sadness, and anxiety.
It’s important to educate kids about their emotions and how those emotions influence them. A child who can say, “I’m feeling anxious and that anxiety makes me want to avoid scary things,” will be better equipped to face his fears. He’ll also have a better understanding of how to cope with his emotions and he’ll have more confidence in his ability to handle discomfort. Validate your children’s emotions and teach them they have choices in how they deal with their feelings.
- Teach your kids to take positive action
Thinking realistically and feeling good are only half the battle. Kids also need to take positive action. Unfortunately, many parents are quick to rescue kids from their struggles. Or they micromanage their daily activities. And consequently, kids don’t learn to make healthy choices on their own.
Proactively teach your kids problem-solving skills. Show them they have the power to make a difference in their lives and in other people’s lives.
Flex your mental muscles, it’s worth it.
Put Your Best Foot Forward
Thinking, talking, and walking are inextricably linked through history. It is only a recent idea that we meet around tables, seated in chairs. We want to help you rediscover and share the value of walking meetings.
Aristotle was said to walk as he taught, founding what we now refer to as Ancient Greece’s Peripatetic School of Philosophy. This name was derived from the colonnade or walkway in the Lyceum in which he taught. The Sophists, philosophers predating Socrates, were wanderers. They travelled place to place on foot delivering talks.
Despite the onslaught of “mobile” technology, people are spending more time sitting at their desk than ever before. The average worker sits about 9.5 hours a day – which is 2 hours more per day than they sleep.
What keeps us tethered to our desks? Our insatiable thirst for increased productivity and efficiency. Ironically, one of the things that makes us most effective is leaving our desks.
It’s well-known that Steve Jobs insisted on walking meetings, and Mark Zuckerberg favors them as well.
Here are 7 reasons you want to consider incorporating moving meetings into your culture:
- Employee Health.
Walking meetings allow employees to integrate physical activity throughout their workday, which yields improved health, lower health care costs, and a lower number of sick days. - Higher Employee Energy
Movement yields circulation; circulation yields energy. Rather than reach for a biscuit to get a boost of energy, take a walk outside. - Inspiration.
Nature and changes of scenery trigger new neuro-pathways in our brains which yield new ideas, and new solutions to problems. - A Flatter Organization.
- Technology executive Nilofer Merchant shares in her 3-minute TED Talk that when executives and employees walk side-by-side, the hierarchical boundaries are virtually eliminated.
- Increased Collaboration.
- Walking meetings aren’t just for a few people. Larger groups can benefit as well. Unlike traditional meetings in a conference room, where attendees take a seat and often don’t move until the meeting is over, mobile meetings give attendees the option of moving freely from one conversation to another.
- Stronger Personal Connections.
Walking meetings take the corporate feeling out of meetings. Employees can accomplish the same goals set for a traditional meeting, but they can relate on a much more personal level. - Minimized Differences.
Walking meetings bring everyone together. As companies continue to employee 5 different generations of workers, and as diversity increases in the workforce, walking meetings break down both conscious and unconscious biases and barriers.So next time you’re scheduling a meeting, why not give a walking meeting a go?
U3A (The University of the Third Age)
…is a UK-wide movement which brings together people in their ‘third age’ to develop their interests and continue their learning in a friendly and informal environment.
If you’re wondering what we mean by the third age – it is a time after you have finished working full-time or raising your family and have time to pursue your interests or just try something new.
As you get older, keeping your mind active and healthy can become a big challenge, but it’s well documented that keeping your mind active has a direct impact on physical health too.U3A has a ‘university’ of members who draw upon their knowledge and experience to teach and learn from each other but there are no qualifications to pass – it is just for pleasure. Learning is its own reward.
It’s all voluntary; a typical U3A will be home to many activity groups covering hundreds of different subjects – from art to zoology and everything in between.
Formed over 30 years ago, there are now over 1,000 U3As across the UK, with thousands of interest groups between them and more than 400,000 members nationally – plus it’s growing every day.
Want to join, click here https://www.u3a.org.uk/find
K&M Communities 