“I can’t wait to try out that new French bistro after my cardiology appointment today,” said my friend.
“Do you always link your cardiology check-ins with a culinary experience?” I jokingly asked.
“Absolutely and it’s no joke,” she said. “I have so many medical appointments as I’ve aged, I may as well pair them with a lunch date, or special treat. Life’s too short and I’m all about the lemonade.”
Many retirees need to make medical appointments a major factor in their lives, but the happiest people somehow know how to buffer them by keeping life’s inevitable misfortunes from spoiling the good stuff. If we can schedule medical appointments so that we can be sure to make time for a great lunch later, it is not only positive and life affirming, but it promotes health and wellbeing.
No one can avoid all negative feelings in life, and it’s not realistic to think you can or should. But, growing evidence suggests that you may be able to improve your physical health just by changing the way you think and feel about your life. All the advice to “keep the sunny side up” if you want to be healthy sounds all warm and fuzzy, but almost too good to be true. Actually though, evidence confirms that your attitude about life can improve your health and even speed your recovery from a serious ailment or surgery. Although optimism and hope seem to play significant roles in the improvement of mental/physical ailments, above all, a feeling that you have some impact on the quality of your own life is even more significant.
Upon reaching retirement age, and with children leaving the house, the opportunities for socialization often decrease, especially if the retiree must rely on others for transportation. But research has indicated that an active social lifestyle is more important than ever in helping seniors maintain a sharp mind, remain connected to the world around them, increase feelings of happiness, and develop a sense of belonging. If the medical appointment can be scheduled with the spouse and/or other participants as also an occasion to socialize, then a potential negative activity may evolve into a positive social activity. The business power lunch was only partly related to food and where and with whom you shared it. It was, in essence, an opportunity to be seen as a “player.” The contemporary retiree power lunch is again, an opportunity to be seen as a significant social participant for yourself and with whom you share this activity. Any opportunity to dress up, plan a social occasion and be seen reinforces that you are still in the game and should be counted in. Combining the necessary with the lighthearted as often as possible is an affirmation of life itself.