What is positive ageing?

Sandi Rickerby explains the core principles of positive ageing and explores what that looks like in her own life.

The theme of this year's u3a Week is positive ageing. Here, Sandi Rickerby, former Trustee for the North East region, explains what positive ageing is and what it means to her.

Retirement? Oh yes, bring it on! All that lovely freedom, time to do whatever I want whenever I want. Can’t wait! No more work. Life will be wonderful! But will it?

Yes, for a time, in my case a short time, it was. However, I soon discovered that it wasn’t enough, life isn’t one long holiday, I needed something more - much more

When we retire, we lose everything: a purpose to our day, a reason to get up, get dressed and go out. We lose routine and structure. We lose many, and for some, all the people we knew and regularly interacted with. We lose the identity that our working role gave us. We lose the opportunity to feel that we have something to offer, that we have skills that are valued, to feel valued and valuable.

We may also lose our sense of belonging, to feel that we don’t belong anywhere, especially if, like me, you live alone and your children and grandchildren are many, many miles away.

If you listen to what the media and the press say, all you have to look forward to is your body and your brain falling apart, to becoming increasingly frail and dependent and being a drain on the NHS and Social Services.

But that wasn’t the future I wanted. There’s no way I can subscribe to this deficit model of ageing. There and then, I made the decision that my life was going to be dedicated to positive ageing - I would devote all my time and energy to discovering how best to do that. I gave the matter a great deal of thought, did some research and here is what I found.

5 main components for positive ageing

• Education: I define education as learning anything that you don’t currently know, or to do anything that you can’t currently do, or can’t do very well. It can be academic, or practical. It doesn’t matter what it is, anything that interests you. Learning something new is the important bit.
• Exercise: I define exercise as anything active; it can be mildly active or very energetic or anything in-between. It includes just getting from A to B or playing sport of some sort. It doesn’t mean going to the gym or taking up Zumba, but it does mean moving your body, not just sitting about all day, and preferably leaving the house at least once every day.
• Social contact: I define social contact as interacting with another person. This can be anything from passing the time of day with someone, to longer and more involved interactions and discussions. It is more satisfying to have a more prolonged conversation with someone, so joining a group of any kind would be preferable.
• Blue light: I define blue light as natural daylight. This helps to regulate our circadian rhythms and therefore we sleep better, which in turn helps our concentration and improves our mood. It helps us to produce Vitamin D, which has many benefits, including helping to keep our bones and muscles healthy. Just going out of the house is enough for us to get some natural blue light.
• Healthy diet: We all know what a healthy diet is and what foods are best for us to eat, so I’ll say no more about that.

What does positive ageing look like in practice?

So, it’s all very well identifying the components of positive ageing, but what did I actually do to ensure that I had them all in place? The answer is, a lot, and I keep adding more all the time!

Education
I found opportunities to be actively involved in conducting research, joined a couple of choirs, learned to play steel pans and ukulele, took up Zentangle art and became a member of a variety of groups, including philosophy, history, bridge, and craft. I have been a member of various committees - I’m currently on the committee of my local u3a. I also had four years as the u3a Trustee for the North East region.

Exercise
Wherever possible I walk rather than take the car, I’m fortunate to live near the sea and can also go for walks along the coastline. I lead a Circle Dancing group and am a member of a couple of table tennis groups.

Social contact
I have joined all sorts of groups, 16 at the last count, some u3a, some not, some I lead. Some are purely social, including a lunch club and a coffee club.

Blue light
Just going out every day to attend my groups or meet friends for coffee or lunch means I am exposed to blue light.

Healthy diet
I do my best to eat healthily, I am vegetarian and don’t buy ready meals - but I also need the odd treat such as scones, cakes, a cold beer or a glass or 2 of red wine!

I also love to travel and have been all over the world since I retired 17 years ago. At the last count I’d been on 75 holidays abroad, some of which were with the u3a Travel Group that I led.

Of course I have some health issues, as we all do, but I don’t focus on them, and I don’t let them stop me doing anything, apart from a few weeks while my new knee decided to work properly! It’s so important to keep our energy and enthusiasm for life and our ‘can do’ attitude.

Someone asked me recently what the happiest period of my life has been. Without hesitation I replied - ‘my retirement’.

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