Creative heads, hearts bring healthy aging

Do you find events or activities to get you out off your favorite chair and away from the television? Things like, gardening, art projects, crafts on your kitchen table or in your shop? How about community events that stimulate your own joy of music, social connection? (Farmers’ Market is winding down its season, and it’s great for these stimulations.)

Creativity in so many forms can spark healthy aging in older adults! And that’s a medical reality. Dr. Joe Verghese, director of the Montefiore-Einstein Center for the Aging Brain in New York, advocates for something called “cognitive reserve.”

“Cognitive reserve is a concept that is akin to mental muscle. The more you exercise your brain, you build new connections, and you build new (neural) networks,” Verghese says. “So when aging hits your brain, you’re able to ward off symptoms of these diseases for a longer period of time. Engaging in these types of activities helps you do it.”

Beside creativity projects and activities stimulating the brain, they also reduce the big temptation for older adults to be socially isolated. Genevieve Saenz, an expressive arts therapist, sees social isolation as a great risk factor for accelerating health problems in older adults. (I agree!)

Her view is refreshingly different: “I think the main thing that invites creativity into your life is taking risks. Even taking a risk is a creative act. You’re doing something. You’re imagining. You’re thinking about something. You’re thinking outside the experience you’re in and wondering what a new experience could be. And that”, Saenz suggests, “is creativity.”

As we grow older, one of the “persons” we too often leave behind is our “inner child.” But we may also forget to consider the “inner elder” in each of us. Can our inner child and our inner elder find a common place to play, to create together?

The joy and freedom of your inner child can spark your inner elder; while your inner elder can remind your inner child of some wisdom you’ve picked up along the way.

I share some of these notions because they will come together in our first Geezer Forum of the school year. On September 11, we will re-convene the Geezer Forum in the Community Room of Columbia Bank. That day, we will enjoy playing with how creativity sparks healthy aging.

The guest resource for our 90 minutes together will be Kate Mansur, board president of Creations of Sandpoint. She will bring some of the joy and artistic playfulness that Creations of Sandpoint provides many children and adults of all ages from their visually busy space on the east end of the Cedar St. Bridge.

We will get a chance to do some creative projects of our own, plus consider how creative activities -- both alone and with others -- encourage our brains and our social spirits to become healthier and stay healthier. Come prepared to enjoy yourself and others in ways we may not usually see at a Geezer Forum.

We meet on Sept. 11, 2:30-4:00 pm, in the Community Room at Columbia Bank. Bring both your inner child and your inner adult They could have a great time together!

Paul Graves, M.Div., is lead geezer-in-training for Elder Advocates, a consulting ministry on aging issues. Contact Paul at 208-610-4971 or [email protected].