When most people think about fitness, they generally think about healthy eating and physical exercise. But the health of your brain plays a critical role in almost every activity of daily life – thinking, feeling, remembering, working, playing, even sleeping! The good news is that there are lots of ways to help keep your brain healthier as you age.
Recent research has shown that like physical fitness, brain fitness can be improved by various challenging activities, such as playing chess or bridge, doing the daily crossword or other puzzle, dancing, practicing tai chi, painting or learning a new language.
Lifelong learning is the process of keeping your mind and body engaged – at any age – by actively pursuing opportunities to gain knowledge and experience. This pursuit of knowledge – whether it is learning how to dance, speak a foreign language, write a newsletter, improve your golf swing, or repair your car – has wonderful benefits for adults over the age of 50:
- Keeps your mind sharp
- Improves memory
- Increases self-confidence
- Offers an inexpensive way to try something new
- Saves money as you learn to “do it yourself”
- Gives you a feeling of accomplishment
- Helps you meet people who share your interests
- Builds on skills you already have
- Gives you a new interest that you can share with family and friends
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, almost half of American adults are engaged in some form of lifelong learning. Just look to residents of Phoebe Berks Village, a continuing care retirement community in Wernersville, Berks County, who enthusiastically participate in various learning activities on the campus.
The homegrown “School of Skills” offers a chance for residents to share their talents and learn something new. The program, coordinated by resident Lindsay Haman, is in its fourth year. Haman, a retired engineer who used to build power plants, appreciates the opportunity to get involved. “Phoebe Berks is not a place to come and sit,” he laughed. “This program is a lot of fun. It gets people going.”
Residents volunteer to “teach” hour-long classes each week throughout the month of February. This year, classes ranged from Basic Flower Arranging and Calligraphy to Chinese and even Wii! About 140 resident “students” participated, which was a significant increase from previous years.
One surprisingly popular class was Pennsylvania German Conversation, a four-week class taught by residents Rev. Herman Lutz and Robert Glass. Lutz, a native speaker who often preached in Pennsylvania German, “was just amazed at the interest there was.” The class had 23 students, the majority of whom had never spoken the language. The pair taught common vocabulary words – utensils, tools, parts of the body, food – which the students would use in sentences. Says Glass, “I think they had fun with it . . .They learned some words and greetings. You can’t really teach a language unless you immerse yourself in it.”
Student Shirley Bleile commented, “After class, we would go to the café and talk. We had so much fun going over the words because many people had not heard them before.”
She continued, “School of Skills is really good for us, I think. We’ve been out of school for so long.”
It just goes to show that it’s never too late to learn.
