Relationships matter — if you want a happy retirement. When describing longevity, the popular blog about.com begins its post with this strong statement on relationships. Relationships are an essential part of health. Isolation and loneliness create responses in the body similar to those of stress. The body does not function as well as when we are […]
Author: Jeanette Lewis
Retirement Happiness — Watching your children become parents
What a joy to watch your children learn how to become parents! Six months ago we became grand parents. More importantly, our son and daughter-in-law became parents. From the first day their pride was visible. They handled the baby carefully and displayed the hyper-vigilance common to all new parents. Diapering and feeding were time-consuming with […]
How to leave your work and enjoy retirement
Have you truly left your work and career behind? Have you moved past who you were during your career? Do you find yourself beginning too many sentences with words like ” When I ……” and then recounting achievements from career days? Do you struggle with answering the question “what do you do?” at social gatherings? […]
Retirement Happiness — Get pleasure from your habits
Let’s face the truth — we get pleasure from our habits. Habits govern most aspects of our daily lives. They give us a sense of security. Our internal GPS loves habits and drives us to repeat them. Habits give us pleasure because we are emotionally and psychologically attached to certain behaviours and activities. We do […]
Huffington Post Interview
Huffington Post interviewed me yesterday for their series on the Third Metric. You can watch the interview at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/24/embrace-retirement_n_4158116. Enjoy — and please leave your comments!
Happiness in Retirement — How to Understand Gossip
Do you understand gossip? Do you take part in gossip? Do you ‘share’ information with others? Wikipedia defines gossip as “idle talk or rumor, especially about personal or private affairs of others. It is one of the oldest and most common means of sharing facts, views and slander.” The word gossip implies mean, malicious, negative talk. […]
Happiness in Retirement — Walk out of Boring Meetings
Yesterday I walked out of a boring meeting. Since I am no longer paid to sit through mind-numbing — or, perhaps, mind-dumbing events — I did something that I’ve not done before. I gathered my things and left. Walking out is not my usual style. I never skipped school. My formula for getting through grad […]
Achieve Retirement Happiness — Limit TV time
Media, especially television, is often the major form of companionship for older people. We’ve often heard that parents need to limit screen time for children. The same admonishment should apply to older people when it comes to TV viewing. Too much TV is dangerous. Why? Because television networks treat older people with disrespect. Network executives have […]
Retirement Happiness requires time and effort
The great things in life always take time and never come without effort and patience. A successful retirement journey needs planning, work and periodic adjustments. Retirement happiness won’t happen without some forethought. During the summer while hanging out at the cottage, I thought about how I felt about my retirement three years ago. Although I […]
Happiness in Retirement — Quick Fixes for Staying Happy
On most days I am a happy person. But sometimes joints hurt, morning coffee tastes a bit off, the sky outside is cloudy, and there are pesky tasks to complete. It’s easy to sink into a dismal mood. The promised land of retirement happiness feels elusive. On such days it’s worthwhile to do a quick […]
