Are your coworkers starting to snicker behind your back and whisper that you are having another “Senior Moment”, when all you did was to forget a name, a face, or a day of the week? You are not alone; tens of millions of Baby Boomers are experiencing the sometimes humorous (but mostly disconcerting) signs that the brain is loosing its acuity.
At 40 you may have had the urge to join a gym to improve your physical fitness, but now at 50 what are you going to do to maintain and improve your cognitive ability and memory, or said another way your Brain Fitness? There is a growing body of evidence that the brain has more plasticity than previously thought. Boomers are seizing on this information and it has given rise to a mini industry of brain health products.
So, if your temporal lobe is starting to go smooth, you can do an internet search and come up with any number of virtual gyms and fitness programs. (I used “brain fitness program” or “brain fitness training” as the search phrase.) The following are a sampling of what is out there on the net:
You know, they say you can tell if someone is on the express train to drool land, if they keep repeating jokes in their blog, but I don’t care, my favorite George Burns quote when asked by an interviewer about getting older is still, “First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down.” No, I am not going to tell you what stage I am at.
Very funny… but you ask, “What does all this have to do with County jobs working in the Desert?” Well, it is not too late to extend your career and bring the benefit of all your experience to the Desert. A little brain tune-up and the opportunity to leave that current stressful job behind may be all that you need. Who wants (or can afford) to retire before Medicare kicks in anyway?
Already retired? Don’t forget that many of our departments have volunteer programs as well… use it or loose it.
For example, the Riverside County Office on Aging serves as a clearing center for placing volunteers fifty-five and older into a variety of volunteer opportunities in Eastern Riverside County, through the RSVP program.
Additionally, they assist individuals of all ages to find volunteer placements within the Office on Aging. To reach the Volunteer Coordinator and explore volunteer opportunities, call: 1-800-510-2020.
But go to the County web page linked here for a listing of these and other volunteer opportunities.