Social Connections and loneliness

One of the issues that effect people when they retire is a loss of social connections and loneliness. This happens for many reasons. You retire from work and all the people you socialized with you no longer see.

Your children and grand children are living in another city and they don’t have the space to for you to visit for long term. Yours friends become involved with their families and don’t have time to get together.

There are probably more than a hundred reasons that you slowly start to feel isolated. You may have to go back to your high school college years to see how you dealt with it then.

When you moved to senior high school or college you probably left many of your friends behind. This meant that you have to start finding new connections. Here are ten tips to deal with isolation.

1 Invest time in nurturing your relationships – with family friends, co-workers – has a positive impact on relationships, health and well being

2 Seek opportunities to serve and support others – expand network beyond family and friends to community services

3 Express gratitude and be responsive to others. Helps improve relationships and strengthens social bons

4 Reflect the core values of connection in all your conversations. Treat others with kindness, respect, showing concern and a commitment to helping others.

5 Avoid distractions during conversations. Put the phone away and turn off the TV.

6 Engage people with diverse backgrounds. Expand your social circles with people whose experiences are different from yours. Most communities have Senior Citizens centers and offer meals, exercise classes, interest circles like bridge, sewing, genealogy. Mine even has a billiards room. Many of them are in the same boat you are, looking for new friends.

7 Get involved with social and community groups. Fitness, hobby clubs, religious groups, professional groups. Looking to foster feelings of belonging, meaning and purpose.

8 Make time for civic involvement. Participate in local government, school boards, town hall meetings. Volunteer on committees helping people who are running for office. There is lots to do, phone calls, collect signatures for getting them on the ballot, stuffing and labeling flyers.

9 Be open with your health care providers, especially about major changes in your family or social life. They can’t help you if they do not know.

10 Seek help during times of struggle, especially if it is loneliness or isolation. Most health care plans offer mental heath coverage. Talking to a shrink really does help. I went to one for two years after my wife died and it was worth every penny.

Retirement is your time—use it with purpose, plan how you’ll spend, and make every dollar count toward a meaningful life.

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