I can’t wait to retire!

We all dream of it, don’t we!?  ‘I can’t wait to retire.’ ‘If I win the lottery the first thing I will do is retire.’  We look forward to doing, well quite frankly what we please! It can be a tricky time in your life though, when I talk to many people who have retired, they talk about the loss of many friendships and connections with others as they don’t work anymore.  We forget how much time we spend at work, for better or worse.  So when this stops it can be difficult to maintain relationships.  Not only is this incrediably sad, but could have an impact on our overall health with an increased chance of cardio-vascular disease and dementia.  So what can we do to keep connected?

• Make a plan for life changes such as retirement- what hobbies and interests will you take up?

• Keep practicing meeting people and being slightly out of your comfort zone.  Making connections can be like a muscle, the more you practice using it the easier it becomes.