Blog - Ardenwoods Independent Living Community

Winter 2022 Resident Spotlight: David and Rosemary Zimmerman

It was an unseasonably warm day when I had the pleasure to meet with David and Rosemary Zimmerman. A few days after the holidays, I was welcomed into their apartment to talk life, interests, art and hobbies and was able to get an inside look at these two wonderful people.

Upon entering, there was a picture of the lovely “Miss Kitty,” who the couple rescued when she came into their yard in 2011. Seeing that she had been spayed and declawed, David and Rosemary took her in, knowing she would have trouble surviving if they just left her be. They had always had animals in the home and couldn’t imagine life without one. Their home was adorned with baskets and cross stitch projects made by David, and the office space adjacent to the living room contained all of David’s train set building projects.

Top 5 Benefits of Listening to Music for Seniors

Think back to one of your favorite songs. What memories are associated with that song and how does it make you feel?

Turns out that music can help keep your brain younger and fitter.

In fact, recent studies have been done to see how listening to music affects the brain. Music is very mathematical, and the ways the notes connect force your brain to do some serious computing for us to perceive sound waves of what we call “music”.

Whether you enjoy listening to music or playing it, both have enormous benefits, especially for older adults, and can help your brain stay sharp. Sound is so vital to our existence that even as we are in the process of passing away, or on hospice care, our hearing is the last sense of ours to go.

Below are some of the top benefits of listening to music as a senior:

Celebrating the Holidays at a Retirement Community

Retirement can change many things in your life – hopefully for the better! You have more free time, you’re able to relax and have less responsibilities. As all of these aspects are shifting in your life, you may find yourself re-thinking how you will be celebrating the holidays.

While a move to a retirement community is certain to change some family traditions, it can be a great time to reconsider the things your family has been doing for years. The holiday time is stressful enough, so this can present an opportunity to eliminate “stuff” and truly value each other’s presence, spending more time together rather than lose time by all of the typical holiday to-do lists.

Benefits of Traveling Later in Life

Anna Quindlen, an American author, journalist and opinion columnist once wrote, “The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only life you have.”

You have been patient, worked diligently and saved your whole life for retirement, so now that it’s here and life is short, what will you do? For many, this is a time to explore and see the world and for the first time in your life, you have the time to go where you want and to do what you want. As you get older, you realize the value in experiences and how far greater that is over physical things and as a senior, you have earned your time to travel.

The best part of this is that there are many benefits of travel for seniors. Among proper diet and exercise, you can add travel to the list as well for key components to a long and healthy life. Traveling as a senior can enhance your confidence, overcome fears, help leave your comfort zone, offer social benefits and opens the door to learn different cultures and experiences. It can help you deepen relationships with traveling companions and promotes opportunities to connect and meet new people.

Not only does travel provide a pathway to healthy aging, but also contributes to a longer life along with a more satisfying retirement! These benefits include improvements to your mental, physical and emotional health. Studies have found that travel keeps seniors active which provides more opportunities to move than staying at home. Older adults who are more physically active have lower rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and many other diseases.

The Art of Minimalism- How Having Less Makes You Do More

The idea of minimalism is not entirely new. It has been around for quite a while, but is seeing a resurgence in our lives today. Minimalism is the art of having fewer physical things and burdens in and around your home so you can focus on other things that you care about.

Throughout our lives, it’s no big secret that we tend to acquire a whole bunch of stuff. We may find ourselves going through a sea of things each time we move to another home or area, or maybe during a spring-cleaning spree. The average American home has more than 300,000 items in it, ranging from clothes, books, kitchen utensils, toys and more. As a society we are drowning in stuff.

It would be one thing if stuff we owned actually added to our general levels of happiness and productivity, but for most people, it brings anxiety and dread- definitely not the key to happiness!