The older you get, the more important it becomes to take whatever steps are necessary to maintain your mental well-being and physical health. You can help keep your mind sharp with activities such as writing and reading.
In retirement communities, libraries, senior centers, and other locations, retirement-age individuals can take classes involving writing for mental health benefits. You’ll get to hear what others have to say about what they’ve written, and share what you’ve written. To help each other become stronger, better writers, feedback is shared among the group of participants.
Not sure where to find a group like this? An online search will likely provide the results you need. In the meantime, let’s look into why mental health can be improved through writing.
Improve Overall Well-Being and Health
For both your body and your mind, long-term benefits are cultivated by writing. Including decreased depressive symptoms and stress levels, as well as improved well-being and mood, numerous emotional benefits have been linked to expressive writing. What’s more, it can help decrease hospitalization time, improve liver and lung function, and lower blood pressure.
Get Better Sleep at Night
Critical to both physical and mental health, you may end up getting a better night’s sleep if, at the end of the day, you express all your thoughts, emotions, thankfulness, etc., in a daily journal. In particular, if you write in a “thankful/gratitude journal” (see below) for 15 minutes a day, your sleep, the duration of it, and its quality could be significantly improved.
Increase Happiness and Decrease Stress
Over time, you can be happier if you write regularly in a “gratitude journal.” In addition to writing in your journal about pain, sadness, grief, anger, and other such feelings, this type of journal encourages you to write about what has happened throughout the day that made you happy and thankful.
This can help you feel more at peace, calmer, and lessen your stress level.
Ease Physical and Emotional Pain
To strengthen your ability to heal and process painful or traumatic experiences, expressing emotions through words can be helpful. You can honestly express your innermost joys, concerns, and thoughts while writing in a private journal without fear of reproach or judgment. You can gain self-awareness through this process as well as the ability to positively confront emotions. It also supports physical healing by producing a calming effect.
Memory Retention May Improve
While memory loss and dementia cannot be cured by keeping a daily journal or memory book, it can help to prevent minor cognitive impairment and will exercise your mind. As your brain searches for the correct phrases and words with which to express your thoughts accurately, it encourages cognitive focus and recall that augments your verbal communication skills at the same time.
Exercise Your Body and Your Brain
For the residents at Aston Gardens At Pelican Marsh, it’s easy to find opportunities with which to exercise your body and mind. Through our Dimensions Health and Fitness program, we aspire to meet both the mental and physical needs of our residents.
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