Year: 1994 - 95 AGM December 1, 1994 - SSAAM
Year: 1994 - 95 AGM December 1, 1994 - SSAAM
Year: 1994 - 95 AGM December 1, 1994 - SSAAM
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Retirement<br />
This is the time of year when we recognize the administrators, teachers, secretaries, educational<br />
assistants, bus drivers, custodians and other staff in our systems who have decided to retire. It is also a<br />
time when may of us who may be "eligible' within the next five to ten years may begin to think about our<br />
own retirement.<br />
The following article is taken from the Presentation Resource Manual from last summer's National<br />
Wellness conference held in Wisconsin.<br />
WELLNESS IN RETIREMENT<br />
by Guild A. Fetridge<br />
While there are a number of influencing factors contributing to retirement wellness, it seems that what retired<br />
people do with their time is one of the most important ingredients. How to fill up an extra eight to ten hours, each<br />
day, every day, for the rest of their lives, with quality activity is of paramount importance.<br />
For most people, work occupies a central place in their lives for many years. They often spend more than<br />
eight hours a day at work, and at work related activities such as overtime, work brought home, business travel,<br />
extra meetings, important projects, and even work related social functions. There is usually a steady flow of<br />
achievement and satisfaction from all this activity, as well as the occasional frustrations and dissatisfiers. People<br />
are often unaware of this flow, what I call mental nourishment, in their daily work life perhaps because of<br />
conditioning over the years, until the supply stops.<br />
Retirement, for many people, doesn't usually provide a flow of accomplishments and satisfactions. There<br />
isn't a regular level of activity that gives people those 'sparks' of achievement. The small emotional gratifications<br />
of a regular day are gone. Also, the regular pressures people had when working, such as maintaining schedules,<br />
following plans, meeting deadlines and objectives, commitments, and managing the many other forces that<br />
determine their velocity during the day are shut off. Even the anticipation of a Friday or a long weekend is<br />
absent. Retirement can bring an openendedness of time lacking the normal cycles people were used to.<br />
In retirement, unless people push themselves, they don't go. they have little momentum, they begin to<br />
understand that the everyday pressures while working were an energizing force. Many people have to adjust and<br />
earn to function without them. The stimulators which are absent need to be replaced. A major source of their<br />
vitality has been severed and something needs to be done before a decline into lassitude and apathy begins.<br />
Add to this a reduction in physical activity and you can have a potentially hazardous situation. Lack of regular<br />
exercise is one of the most significant body agers.<br />
We know as a fact that individuals who remain intellectually challenged and keep physically active live longer.<br />
:or many people, retirement prompts a reduction in both areas, doctors find convincing evidence for a link<br />
>etween idleness and deteriorating health.<br />
Without proper planning, retirement can be troubling and worrisome. Often, people in retirement do<br />
everything in six months that they had been planning for the past 30 years. Those who have had no other<br />
nterests, or who don't realistically plan for their extended leisure time, are understandably at a loss following<br />
etirement.<br />
An important question is, how is it possible to live a meaningful and fulfilled life if work is no longer the center<br />
of it? After a few months in retirement, the thrill of sleeping late wears off. success motivated people spend<br />
most of their adult lives sharpening their abilities, increasing productiveness, and gaining momentum in their<br />
>rofessions. So, in retirement, there is a silent despair for some people, of becoming irrelevant, of thinking in<br />
erms of how much time is left rather than how much time has passed, to some, it is the shock of aging.<br />
(con't.)