This is a helpful re-post that is very appropriate for today’s weather around the world. 

Melinda

This year, especially, creates new stressful events that affect all of us. Nobody can ignore how much the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge for our mental health. Yet, the pandemic fear isn’t the only thing that can lead to stress during the last quarter of the year. 

SAD symptoms get worse

You are probably familiar with Seasonal Affective Disorder, especially if you’ve been consciously self-isolated this year. SAD, for short, is a type of depressive disorder that is linked to seasonal light exposures. Typically, it occurs when days get shorter and nights longer, as you receive less direct sunlight. As the summer has come to an end, you may find your mood sinking again. SAD can develop into severe depression, so it’s not a disorder you should ignore. Thankfully, a lot of individuals with SAD can experience significant improvements with light therapy. Did you know that something as simple as buying a lamp for SAD may help to create the feel-good serotonin that affects your brain’s needs? 

Floodings everywhere 

After the sunny summer comes the autumn rain. Unfortunately, some areas are more likely to get flooded during the colder months because the soil can’t absorb the rainwater. Unfortunately, depending on where you live, seasonal floods may be a frequent occurrence. Even if your home is safe from significant damages, you could still get affected when you drive on the road. It’s not uncommon to come across deep puddles in winter that could damage your engines. Ideally, countryside dwellers need vehicles that can survive heavy floods, such as the reliable high-chassis Land Rover Discovery – You may want to head to your local Land Rover dealerships to find a vehicle that can drive through deep water. 

Only 2 months before Christmas

It is soon the season to be jolly! Except that Christmas can also drive your stress levels to the maximum. A lot of people are already experiencing pre-Christmas stress when they think of the cost of preparation, shopping for presents, and the pressure to deal with family expectations. With a little over 2 months to get ready, it’s likely that you may be feeling overwhelmed already. It’s been an odd sort of year, and time has seemed to fly away from us. 

The feeling that the year has gone by too quickly

How can it already be October? The last time you checked, it was March and the news of a pandemic was just hitting the media. What happened to 2020? While everyone has had to put their lives on hold for the past 6 months, it’s hard to get to grips with the reality of the situation. It feels like a wasted year where you haven’t been able to enjoy much of it. For the time being, we have to learn patience to stay safe. 

In conclusion, feeling stressed or depressed by the rainy season is the most natural thing in the world. Thankfully, there are more than one ways to handle the situation. Whether you need to consider light therapy or organize your Christmas events early, stress is a response to a problem. Yet, most problems can be solved once you’ve identified your triggers! 

This is a collaborative post.

Melinda

Spending time in the garden makes a massive difference in your overall wellbeing and longevity according to research by the Royal Horticultural Society – a UK-based based charity. Investigators studied more than 8,000 people between 2009 and 2016 following their daily gardening habits. They found that those who spent more time in the garden had better overall psychological and physical wellbeing. 

The findings were dramatic. The research indicates that the difference in health outcomes between the people who spent the most time in their gardens compared to the least was the same size as the difference of living in a wealthy area compared to a poor one. 

Pexels – CC0 License

The findings suggest, therefore, that we should all be looking for ways to open up our gardens and spend more time in them. We should view our outdoor spaces as both beautiful places to spend time and tools for improving our mental health. Like exercise, the areas around our homes are places that can potentially alter our neurochemistry and change the way that we feel. 

People With Access To Private Gardens More Likely To Report Psychological Wellbeing

The study also found that even people with access to private gardens were much more likely to be in good psychological health. Those who could have a yard or private space to themselves reported feeling much happier to the researchers. 

What’s more, the evidence suggests that merely having a garden is often sufficient to confer the benefits, not the process of gardening itself. Thus, people with an outdoor space beside their home were much more likely to experience the health and wellbeing benefits compared to those who didn’t. 

The lead researcher on the project suggested that the findings were indicative of the fact that people need to feel close to nature to have a sense of contentment. Gardens might have a crucial role to play in issues of public health she said. 

How To Spend More Time In The Garden

So, while this research is interesting, it doesn’t answer the practical question of how to spend more time in the garden. We’d all like to be outside as much as possible, but often, it’s not possible. So what can we do? 

Let’s take a look. 

Purchase A Laptop

If you can work from home, purchasing a laptop can be one of the best things you do to increase the amount of time that you spend in the garden. You can connect to the internet, take it out to the garden, and then spend all day among the flowers and the birds, weather permitting. 

Install Decking

Getting deck builders to install decking is another way to make your garden spaces more practical. Having somewhere off the grass to place garden furniture can encourage you to use your garden as an entertainment space. 

Build A Garden Room

A garden room is simply a room in your home that connects the garden to your indoor space, encouraging you to use both. 

Most modern garden rooms have sliding doors that act as a kind of interface between your indoor and outdoor spaces. But you can do it in other ways, such as bi-folding doors. 

Install A Summer House

In certain parts of the world, it’s not warm enough to spend time outdoors year-round. Spending time on your patio isn’t fun when it’s freezing cold. 

The obvious solution to this problem is a summer house – a strange name for something you’ll use in the colder months of the year. And because it provides shelter, you can place indoor furniture inside, making sitting in it more comfortable. 

Get A Vegetable Patch

Vegetable patches offer two advantages. First, they let you grow tasty organic food. And secondly, they force you to get out into the garden and take care of them. 

Your onions and leeks can become a real source of focus that takes your mind off other things. When you’re digging up soil and planting bulbs, you’re not thinking about all the things that affect your wellbeing. It’s a healthy physical activity that takes your mind off things and allows you to thrive. 

Subscribe To A Gardening Magazine

Pexels – CC0 License

Finally, subscribing to a gardening magazine is something that can inspire you to get out into the garden and create something beautiful. Editors introduce you to essential concepts, such as when you should plant bulbs and how you should arrange your beds. You’ll also learn practical things, such as how to weed and the tools you’ll need to keep your yard looking good all year long. 

This is a collaborative post.

In Health,

Melinda

IDEAS.TED.COM

Mar 14, 2019 / Marc Freedman

iStock

Imagine a place for the elderly that’s also filled with the sounds of kids playing. Marc Freedman goes to Singapore to investigate a new model for intergenerational living.

Sister Geraldine Tan, an energetic woman in her 60s, speaks rapidly and is given to sweeping gestures. She wears the flowing white robes of the Canossian Daughters of Charity, and they threaten to engulf her small frame. But Sister Geraldine — trained in the hospice movement in the UK and now the executive director of the St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged and Hospice in Singapore — is not easily overwhelmed.

St. Joseph’s is not your typical nursing home. It’s striking, with tropical flora, open pavilions and airy rooms, and large, accommodating some 400 older people. Natural light and trade winds flow through its floors.

But the people it serves aren’t all elderly. The facility includes a childcare center for about 50 children, ages two months to six years. At the center of St. Joseph’s courtyard is an intergenerational playground, home to spontaneous interactions between the older people at the nursing home and the little ones at the childcare center.

Singapore’s leaders see the generations growing apart. They’re eager to bring them back together, to find new ways to do old things.

The neighborhood isn’t typical, either. St. Joseph’s is in Jurong West, an industrial area gone high tech. Google Singapore is next door; on the other side is the Boys’ Home, which houses young people who have been in trouble with the authorities. Across the street is a primary school. The massive Supply Chain City building — a facility “that serves as Asia’s supply-chain nerve center” — is less than 100 yards away. St. Joseph’s sits in the middle, a bastion of humanity.

While many residents share a strong cultural respect for their elders, Singapore’s leaders see the generations growing apart. They’re eager to bring them back together, to find new ways to do old things. This fits Sister Geraldine’s vision. She is determined to create an environment that encompasses the full “circle of life,” as she puts it, with children at its center. “They remind us of the purpose of life and of the importance of play and simplicity,” she says.

“There is birth and there is death,” says Sister Geraldine. “At both ends, we all need someone to tend to us.”

Today, one in eight people in Singapore is aged 65 and older. By 2030, it will be one in four.

Just as the childcare center aims to foster bonds that benefit young and old, students at the primary school visit regularly, and some of them are being mentored by the seniors. Boys’ Home residents operate a coffee cart in the courtyard, delivering drinks to the older people at St. Joseph’s — another way Sister Geraldine is instigating meaningful, cross-generational relationships.

Sister Geraldine and St. Joseph’s are all part of Singapore’s scheme to deal with their aging population. The wealthy city-state has put forth a national plan to invest $3 billion Singapore ($2.1 billion in USD) and become the envy of other aging societies. It’s a staggering investment given Singapore’s population size: just under four million permanent residents, about the size of Chicago.

Like many countries in Asia and the rest of the world, Singapore is aging fast. In 1970, one in 31 Singaporeans was 65 or older; today, it’s one in eight. By 2030, it will be one in four, or from about 440,000 people over 65 to more than 900,000 by 2030. “Aging is really the single most important demographic shift that will affect the future of Singapore,” says Amy Khor, the government’s senior minister of state for health.

Singapore officials are promoting “3Gen flats” to help older people, younger people, and those in the middle live in close proximity.

As in much of the world, the change is caused by increasing longevity and decreasing birth rates. In February 2016, Khor announced the Action Plan for Successful Ageing, an ambitious collection of some 70 initiatives covering a wide array of issues, including health care, volunteerism, employment, housing, transportation and protection for vulnerable elders. A leitmotif is engaging older people to support the next generation behind them.

To bring the generations together, Singapore is launching programs to help older people retool for second acts, to recruit young people to teach technology and social media skills to older folks, and to help community organizations better use senior volunteers. Officials are promoting “3Gen flats” to help older people, younger people, and those in the middle live in close proximity. One of the Plan’s most striking features is the creation of a “Kampong for All Ages.” Kampong is the Malay word for village, and it envisions a future Singapore built around a cherished element of the past: the multigenerational village.

The Plan also funds a $200 million Singapore ($140 million in USD) National Innovation Challenge, toward research on promising models and incentives to encourage more ideas for a multigenerational society.

The idea is to use community design to re-create natural opportunities for cross-generational support — to move from program to proximity, from concept to reality.

I sat down with two young architects at the CDB, the ministry that oversees land use in Singapore, where space is at an absolute premium. They showed me plans for the Admiralty Kampong, a development created to encourage connection between the generations. It will contain a ground-floor plaza with a grocery store and eateries, a daycare center, assisted-living services, a day center for elders with more extensive needs, and lots of opportunities for socializing.

The idea is to use community design to re-create natural opportunities for cross-generational support — to move from program to proximity, from concept to reality. The conscious effort is all the more striking in an Asian society where interaction and care between young and old, especially in families, occurred naturally for much of its history. But in our fast-paced, highly mobile, globally-oriented 21st-century world, there’s a need to find new ways to cultivate these time-honored values.

I admit being taken with Singapore’s plan, but my burning question on arrival and throughout my visit was: Is it real or a mirage? Some experiences were underwhelming. At one point, I visited the nation’s oldest center that brings together children, adolescents and older adults. The program’s diversity was impressive, mixing many different ethnic backgrounds, as well as ages. Yet the contact between generations was mostly superficial — there was a patina of closeness without much in the way of genuine interaction.

Scarcity of space could have led to conflict; instead, it’s prompting creative thinking about how to wring the most social value from limited square footage.

Still, those experiences were the exception for me. In Singapore, for the most part, I witnessed a sense of common purpose among people to realize the plan’s goals, a shared vision that was more significant in some ways than the sums being spent (although I can’t get over my envy of the money).

Two lessons stood out for me from my trip. First, not having much land can be a powerful impetus for change. Scarcity of space could have led to conflict; instead, it’s prompting creative thinking about how to combine institutional purposes to wring the most social value from limited square footage. Second, I found the instinct to combine old and new — a new-way-to-do-old-things approach — everywhere.

On my final day, I visited a church initiative that was a faith-based bookend to the St. Joseph’s experience that started my trip. St. John’s–St. Margaret’s is a well-established Anglican congregation near the National University of Singapore. The church is in the midst of creating a large senior living facility and early childhood center, having broken ground on it in mid-2017.

When complete, the project may be even more impressive than St. Joseph’s. This redesign was prompted by the expiration of the church’s lease on government-owned land. In order to stay on its prized plot, St. John’s–St. Margaret’s was required to “intensify” its use of the land — to do more social good. The congregation decided not only to build a nursing home and senior programs but also to find ways to simultaneously support young children. I love the notion of intensifying the land; it’s another way of saying every dollar should be spent (at least) twice.

When complete, St. John’s-St. Margaret’s will contain a nursing home, a senior center, and an early childhood center. Its name? Project Spring-Winter.

For insights, the St. John’s–St. Margaret’s team headed to the US and visited facilities that bring the generations together for mutual benefit, including the Providence Mount St. Vincent Intergenerational Learning Center in Seattle (the subject of the 2017 documentary The Growing Season). Another source of inspiration was a passage from Zechariah 8:4–5 that describes the renewed city of Jerusalem as a cross-generational paradise: “Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And … the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.”

When open in 2021, St. John’s–St. Margaret’s will consist of a 273-person nursing-home facility, a senior center for 100 older people, and an early childhood center for 200 children. The name for the initiative? Project Spring-Winter.

When I visited the congregation members leading this effort, they told me of an unanticipated side benefit. While working on the plans, they realized the church itself had become age-segregated — for example, there were children’s services and adult services, often held at the same time in separate rooms. Prompted by the research that’s gone into Project Spring-Winter, they’re thinking how best to age-integrate the congregation.

Congregant Sherlyn Lee, one of the Project Spring-Winter leaders, told me that she hopes this new effort will restore a sense of the “circle of life” — both at the church and in Singapore. I was struck by the symmetry: Sister Geraldine and Sherlyn opened and closed my trip with the same beautiful phrase.

Excerpted from the new book How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations by Marc Freedman. Published by PublicAffairs, an imprint of Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2018 Marc Freedman.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marc Freedman is CEO and president of Encore.org, a nonprofit that aims to harness the abilities and experiences of people aged 50 and over. Originator of the encore career idea linking second acts to the greater good, Freedman cofounded Experience Corps to mobilize people over fifty to improve the school performance and prospects of low-income elementary school students in more than 20 US cities. He also spearheaded the creation of the Encore Fellowships program, which helps individuals translate their midlife skills into second acts focused on social impact, and the Purpose Prize, an annual prize for social entrepreneurs in the second half of life. (AARP now runs Experience Corps and the Purpose Prize.)

In life, we have lots thrown at us. Some of it can be handled, and some of it can take a real toll on us. When things get us down, it can be difficult to pick ourselves up again. Sure, if we have the motivation of looking after a healthy family, then getting out of bed in the morning can come quite naturally. When we lack motivation and willpower, life can really stop us from being productive and positive. 

Fortunately enough, there are plenty of things we can all do in order to put ourselves in a more positive and productive headspace. There is an endless list of tasks that can get us out of a funk and put us on the road to recovery. It may take a little while, but consistency will ensure that things get better over time. Here are a few ideas: 

Write Down Your Goals In Life

When we have goals in life, we become more proactive. When we have a reason to get up in the morning, we suddenly find the energy. If you feel as though you have literally no light at the end of your tunnel, then you’re going to struggle to find the purpose in your life. If you create goals and write them down, you bring them to reality – they’re no longer ideas in your head. 

Make It Your Mission To Always Improve Your Life

This is easy to talk about and difficult to actually pull off without the right attitude. Your life should be a continuing journey of moving up ladders. Try to be a better human being and a more accomplished person than you were the year before. Look at quick move-in homes, find jobs that make you happy, look to bring in more money than you did the year before – all of these are great examples of moving up in the world. Just give it a go and you’ll naturally be happier as you’ll subconsciously become more advanced. 

Talk To Someone About Your Next Moves

Staying silent and keeping things bottled up never helps. If you let someone know about your problems, the chances are that they’ll be able to help. If they can’t, then the practice of opening up will, at least, make you feel better. Talking about your next moves in life will also be a good step and you can learn something new and find out about the kinds of opportunities available. 

Don’t Sit Around For Too Long

When you sit around for too long, your brain can begin to play tricks on you. While the brain is amazing and creative, it can be counterproductive as you can begin to think about pretty negative instances. The best thing to do in life is to keep productive whenever you can. When you need to rest, do it. When you have things to do, get up and do them. 

This is a collaborative post.

Melinda

As a parent, there will be very little in life that is more important to you than your family. And because of this, you will want to be sure that they are happy and live good lives. However, that can sometimes be hard to work out. Maybe you’re not sure what you need to do to make that happen? It can seem more complex than it needs to be. Because one sure-fire way to make sure that they live a good life is to keep them healthy. Let’s take a look at ten different ways that you can make sure that your whole family stays as healthy as possible.

Make It A Priority

For starters, you will want to make sure that this is a priority for you. It’s easy to just let things slip by the wayside or for you to think that this is going to need way more time and attention than it does. In fact, being healthy can just become a natural part of your lifestyle and routine. But for that to happen, you have to proactively make it a conscious priority.

Educate Yourself

It’s also a great idea to make sure that you’re educated on health issues. There will always be concerns that you might want to be aware of. Sometimes, you won’t always know when something is wrong and being aware of what could be is a great idea. You might not recognize adult cradle cap or food allergies, but if you’re staying in the loop you’ll know more and what to look out for. Even just reading up on nutrition and health, in general, can put you in a great position.

Get Regular Check-Ups

Then, you might want to be sure that you’re seeing your doctor and dentist as much as possible. Staying on top of your visits is just a quick and simple way to make sure that you’re all healthy. It’s a great way to avoid any issues and catch anything before it’s bad too.

Focus On Nutrition

One of the greatest ways to stay healthy is to make sure that you’re all ticking off the proper nutrition that you all need. This doesn’t mean you have to eat super crazy healthily, but looking to get as much fruit and vegetables into your diets as much as possible can make such a difference to your health.

Limit Toxins

Whether you know it or not, there are so many toxins in life that we can all be exposed to on a regular basis. And so, it’s important for us to make sure that we’re doing what we can to limit that. Minimizing toxins can be such a small way to make sure that you have a huge impact on your family’s health for years to come.

Find A Balance

It’s never too good of an idea to live a life of extremes. Of course, you don’t want your children to be unhealthy. But at the same time, you’re definitely not going to want them to go to extremes and be on the other end of the scale. Because being uber strict with healthy eating can also lead to issues. So, as with anything, you will want to find a good balance. Do this with food, exercise, and your attitude to health and life in general.

Make Exercise Fun

Then, when it comes to the exercise you want your family to do, it’s a great idea to try and make it fun. If you’re a drill sergeant with workouts, it can be quite tough. So try to mix things up and have fun with it. Think about different sports you can try out or games you can play. Even rollerblading or hiking or different things out in the wild can be a great way to work out and stay fit as a family.

Create A Relaxed Environment

If your home is a stressful place to be, it’s going to make your family feel stressed out. That’s never going to be an ideal situation for anyone. So, instead, it’s a good idea to make sure that you’re creating a relaxing space instead. You can manipulate the environment in so many ways and it can be a great idea for you to allow everyone to feel relaxed and able to rest in your family home.

Make Communication Important

It’s also a great idea to make sure that you can all communicate well as a family. This isn’t something that all families make a priority, but it definitely should be. If you can have better communication as a family, it can bring you closer together. It can also mean that you feel happier together and that you’re able to talk and air issues – whether with each other or in general. A close happy family can be so much healthier. It can make a much bigger impact than you’d think.

Care About Health Holistically

Finally, you should make sure that you’re looking at health holistically and not just on the surface. Sure, seeing your doctor is important – and so is what you eat and how much you move. But the mind is also vital too. Mental health should be made a priority. Making sure that you’re all happy and looking after your minds is key. Encourage rest and self-care. Make sure everyone knows it’s okay not to be okay. Because you can make life great together and get through it all together.

It’s always going to be important for you to make sure that your family is happy and healthy. But approaching that may not look the way that you think it should. Instead, you can approach this in so many different ways that can go on and make such a huge collective difference. So take action today, enjoy the process, and know that you’re doing your best to keep your entire family happy and healthy.

This is a collaborative post.

Melinda