Talking is living as one can express their emotions, sentiments, and feelings about several things in life. A normal person in prime youth spends roughly 3 to 4 hours minimum in talking either at home or at office or with friends. The more a person talks, the more he / she shares the internal emotions and thereby, gets lighter at heart.
As old age sets in, a sense of helplessness creeps, being physically & mentally weaker and away from busy activities of life. Friend circle also keeps shrinking in size. This loneliness results in less talking. If this continues for a long time, depression sets in and might result in total withdrawal from active life.
The antidote to the above is to talk and talk to whomever you can. You can talk to your family members, friends, residents of the place where you stay or even to total strangers.
Talking has several benefits:
1. It takes away the stress of life or at least mitigates their impact and intensity.
2. Talking improves the functioning of lungs and many other vital physical parameters.
3. Talking with friends reminds one of the joys of the past and re-energizes the mind.
4. It increases the sense of connectedness and thereby improves attitude towards life and enhances sense of happiness. It also augments self-esteem.
5. It definitely reduces the sense of loneliness and relieves the stress arising out of depression and withdrawal syndrome.
6. Finally talking helps to garner more friends and creates a sense of trust among the people who constantly interact. The happy hormone 'Oxytocin' is often associated while we talk to our loved ones including friends.
Here comes the importance of making talking a habit. In all the virtual programs of our My Retired Life Foundation (MRLF), we keep an open session at the beginning and at the end (for about 8 to 10 minutes each) where members are encouraged to speak to each other. This creates an enabling environment where the elderly who are not speaking at home can interact with their friends and other members. This has worked wonders, as many members join the meeting 10 to 15 minutes before the commencement of the session only to talk with each other.
This type of enabling environment should be created at other places also including family set up. There can be a 'talking time' every day where the family members spend time with their elders and encourage them to interact on topics- the elders like. Same way, the school / college students should visit the old age homes or places where elders sit in silence and encourage them to talk. Helping and motivating the elders to talk is a great way whereby all of us can create a facilitating environment where elders can 'talk and talk freely'.
In conclusion, we can say that elders must talk if they want to age happily. Let’s create an environment where elders not only live with dignity but also can talk openly & freely.
(By Dr A K Sen Gupta, Chief Trustee, My Retired Life Foundation (MRLF). He may be contacted at aksengupta51@gmail.com or 98211 28103)
