Older Age: Maintaining Social Connections And Combating Loneliness

Combating Loneliness In Older Age: In recent times, everyone has been busy in their own lives, and with this, they are ignoring their families especially the older ones to earn money or due to the workload. As we age, we come to hear from everyone that their nature becomes childish and needs more attention or care than us younger ones.

Maintaining social connections and combating loneliness in older age

Today, younger ones treat the elders like useless people and avoid them. Some of them throw them out of their house, left on the road, put them into the old age home, or treat them as servants. But they do not know that they have to go through the same phase, for them, money and space are more important than our older ones.

Why spending time with older age people is important?

Grandparents are an important part of a family who carries the old legacy to the upcoming generation. Their presence in the family reduces the stress because they manage everything and carry forward the culture and traditions of our family. They teach children and grandchildren and give specific time to the kids when their own parents are busy due to workload.

They teach morals, ethics, culture, and tradition by telling them stories or giving life lessons by sharing their own experiences so that you can save yourself from being hurt. So spend some quality time with older age ones. If you do not have money to fulfill their needs at least give them some time, ask them their problems, go outside with them, etc.

Ways to combat loneliness and maintain a social life in older age:

There are several ways to combat loneliness and maintain social life in older age and these are as follows:

1. Parents and kids get too busy in their lives, and they sometimes do not remember or are not able to give time to the older ones, and by this, they feel lonely. To overcome their loneliness, they should maintain their social life.
2. They should go outside the homes like to parks, yoga camps, laughter sessions, Satsang, etc. for brisk walking after having meals, in the evening so that they can make social groups of their age group where they can do group discussion, some laughter can share their problems, etc.
3. Talking with other can make them feel happy, and stays away from worries, loneliness, etc.
4. Once in a week take your parent to movies, dinner, lunch, etc. so they can feel special.
5. If you are too busy and cannot call in a whole day to your parents then when you came back home, call them or sit with them at least for half an hour or for five minutes and talk to your parents, tell them about your day, about your worries, and with this, you can also feel light because their suggestions can solve half of your problems and they also feel good, this makes them feel special.  
6. Teach your children to spend time with older ones instead of spending time on tabs, mobile phones, or some other digital devices, so that they can learn something useful for the present and future.
7. Being socially isolated or lonely can lead to diseases. It may lead to overthinking, depression, anxiety, heart failure, Alzheimer’s disease which is a brain disorder that affects the memory and thinking factors, etc. so it is important to talk to anyone so that your mind will remain busy.
8. An older parent who has 2 or 3 children or their family members who lives separately due to their jobs or due to other reasons, if parents get bored by staying alone at home they can shift to the other children’s house, this also can be considered as a trip for them and they can spend time with all their loved ones.  
9. Join those social age groups who make trips once or twice a year, goes to the Satsang, camps, have laughter sessions, etc. which makes them busy in their lives.      
10. Invite their friends at home for tea, and coffee, and make them learn new things like computers, tabs, etc.
11. Pay attention to their thinking, lifestyle, and feelings, ask them for food, their other requirements, take suggestions from them, etc. which is involved in mindfulness and is an important element to overcome loneliness. 

Also Read: Yoga For Seniors: Top Reasons for Older Adults to Get Started Yoga