Senior Tips for Spending Winter Indoors

Senior tips for spending winter indoors are meant to help older folks do more than fill in the often long and sometimes even depressing days that come between fall and spring. In the northern half of the U. S. seniors with heart difficulties, joint pains, pulmonary limitations and weight issues are likely to find themselves confined to activities that are indoors. In snowy zones leaving the house at all, even to do errands or keep appointments, can be a challenge from time to time. All things considered senior tips for spending winter indoors can welcomed tools to help you approach the winter months with a positive attitude and spend those winter days proactively, with minimal boredom.

Setting Goals. It's way too easy to give in to the blues when you look at the wall calendar and see November, December, January, February and even March glaring back. You can lift your mood and be far more content about spending winter indoors if you take control of that block of time by setting some meaningful goals for yourself to achieve before the winter is through.

With a spouse or a senior friend make a list of 10 or more objectives that you can work towards. You might choose objectives like loosing a certain number of pounds, writing a certain number of letters, making 6 new desserts, reading 3 historical novels, completing one major jigsaw puzzle each month. Your choices should reflect your interests and desires. One key is to choose stimulating goals, goals that are going to push you to fill your time productively. A second key is to choose enough goals so that working towards the goals themselves doesn't get boring.

On your own schedule but at least once each month check in with yourself , your spouse or your friend to see how you are progressing. Accountability is no fun without rewards so plan to do something special for yourself as you move closer and closer to your goal.

Rejecting the hum. It's only natural that when our outdoor activities are curtailed by winter we tend to watch more television and spend more time in front of the computer. But for some people this can be a mistake. The constant hum of the television that is put on first thing in the morning and never turned off until bedtime can add to the sense of auditory entrapment and raise the level of boredom.

Television for some people can be used very efficiently during winter to break up the day and the monotony of being indoors so much when used intermittently. Instead of seeing the television as a constant companion that you leave on no matter what program is being shown, a good senior tip for spending winter indoors is to schedule your television and computer time limiting usage of each to only a few hours each day. This means that you have to think what you really want to see on television or do on computer rather than sitting numbly in front of either for hours at a time. You will be surprised how entertaining television can really be if it is not on all day long but instead is something you look forward to at select times during the day.

Change your interior design. One senior tip for spending winter indoors that you might especially enjoy is changing the decor of the interior of your house or apartment. Nothing strenuous need be undertaken but you can give your mood a huge lift if you spend some time planning and then implementing changes in the living area in which you are confined from time to time during the winter months. November and December are easy enough to respond to with decorations that connect to Thanksgiving,Christmas or Hanukkah. January might suggest snowflakes, February can be brightened with valentine hearts. And the arrival of March might lift your real or pretend Irish spirit or encourage the purchase of some early spring flowers.

Even if you aren't a big fan of decorations you can still change up your interior design. Moving a few chairs, changing a few lamps, creating and displaying a new collage of family photos will constructively occupy some time but also give one room a fresh,new look that can take the edge off a dull wintry day.

Don't cancel winter . Hardest to stick to is the simple resolution not to cancel out the winter months that appear on your calendar. Your memories of winter are undoubtedly filled with images of show piled up on either side of your driveway, arctic winds whistling outside your window and layers of outerwear loaded on but never quite making you feel warm. These kinds of memories will send you into your own mini hibernation.

For sure most winters, including this one, will deposit their fair share of snow, sleet and ice. There will be sub-freezing even sub -zero days but there will be other days that are almost pleasant or at least passable. Follow your own doctor's instructions of course with regard to outdoor activities but if venturing out in moderate cold when well bundled up is still an option for you than by all means do it. What could better defeat the doldrums of being indoors 24/7 than the chance to step out into some bracing but refreshing air.

Even if you don't feel like you want to stay an extended amount of time out of doors you probably can use those less than frigid days to take you places that will stimulate your mind and body. Visit the library, a nearby museum, the local workout center, the senior center. Stop in on a day time high school basketball game or after school concert. The point is not every day is going to be a washout. Keep an eye on the weather man and try to find one or more days each week to schedule your own personal break out time. It really can make a wonderful difference in your outlook.

There's no getting around it. Winter does come once each year. But you have a choice as to how you want to spend it.