Blog

Good friends do us a power of good. We know they are important so why do we struggle to make time for friends in our busy lives?  Friendships develop from the individual connections we weave over a lifetime.  Friends make us healthier especially when they encourage good habits, like going for regular walks or bike rides together. The best friendships make us feel valued and are reciprocated. These are the friendships we can...

    Lifelong learning helps us understand our world, opens up more work opportunities and improves our quality of life. Why lifelong learning is important Automation and digital technology advances are having a big impact on jobs and the way we learn. Workers need to retrain more often to keep pace with job changes and for transferable skills.  Learning and sharing knowledge enables us to stay connected with others,...

Wellbeing has been bandied about a lot recently in government, health and community circles. Let’s take a look at how wellbeing relates to individuals and ways we can strengthen it.  So what is wellbeing It is ‘a state of being positive, healthy or happy’ or ‘a time when things are going well – being healthy and happy, having friends’. Health and wellbeing includes ‘physical, mental and emotional health as well as relationships’...

Live Longer Better   The traditional three phases of life, education work and retirement are no longer relevant.  In a world in which many people will live to their nineties we need a new way of thinking very well described in the book called “The 100-Year Life” by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott.  Retirement age was set decades ago on the principal that people deserved five years of retirement before they shuffled of the earth.  Even in...

    Why 60 is the PERFECT age to get fit NOW you are in your 60s you can set fitness free. You don’t need money, Lycra or fancy trainers, you just need to know you can do it, whoever you are and whatever has happened in your life to date and here’s why. By Dr Claire Parker and Sir Muir Gray Last year the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges was so bowled over by the weight of evidence for the benefit of just 30 minutes of sweaty, puffy...

By Professor Matthew Parsons- Professor of Gerontology, the University of Auckland Use it or lose it is as true today as it always has been and is as relevant to keeping the brain going as it is to keeping the body in good shape, or even friendships and social networks. However, what does it actually mean - do we need to go to the gym every morning? Just because somebody is 80 years of age doesn’t suddenly mean their personality...