What is the relationship between play and senior health?
Answers
• Relieve stress
The body releases endorphins as a natural feel-good chemical when you play. In addition to promoting a feeling of well-being, endorphins can also temporarily relieve pain.
• Improve the functioning of the brain!
You can prevent memory problems and improve your brain function by playing chess, puzzles, and other fun activities that challenge the brain. Stress and depression can also be eased through social interaction when playing with family and friends.
• Stimulate the mind and boost creativity.
The most effective way for young children to learn is by playing. This principle also applies to adults. Learning a new task will be easier when you’re having fun and in a playful mood. In addition, play stimulates your imagination, making it easier for you to adapt to changing situations.
• Relationships with others will improve.
Intimacy, empathy, and compassion can be fostered by sharing laughter and fun with others. The act of playing does not need to involve specific activities; it can also be a state of mind. Having a playful nature can help you relax in stressful situations, get over shyness, break the ice with strangers, and develop business relationships.
• Feel energetic and young.
As George Bernard Shaw says, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” Play boosts your energy and vitality, helps you stay healthy, and makes you more resilient to disease.
• Social skills are developed and improved through play.
Play is a helpful way to develop social skills. Kids learn a lot about verbal communication, body language, boundaries, cooperation, and teamwork by playing. This skill-building continues even as they become adults.
• Play can heal emotional wounds.
Whenever adults play together, they engage in the same patterns of behaviour that positively influence children’s brains. The same playful behaviours that predict emotional health in children can also influence changes in adults. A secure partner can help an emotionally insecure person replace negative beliefs and behaviour with optimistic assumptions and actions.
Older adults are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of isolation and sedentary lifestyles so that playing could be very useful for them. Participating in activities like these can help seniors improve both physically and intellectually. Any pastime that stimulates either mentally or physically exercise in a senior can only benefit the senior’s health. While it’s essential to watch out for overexertion, allowing an older person to partake in various activities is a win-win situation.
Any activity to encourage either mental or physical activity in a senior can only enhance a senior’s health. Obviously, care must be taken not to experience overexertion, but as long as the old can do varied activities, they will only benefit from it.
One way that many seniors have found to engage in play is with technology. Devices like the Nintendo Wii help seniors be physically active while also being social and entertaining themselves.
Play is essential at any age, but it can be particularly vital for seniors since they typically have decreased social interactions and live a more sedentary lifestyle. Engaging in activities like these can allow seniors to have better mental and physical health.
