With all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, who would think about starting to downsize? Surely not you!

But perhaps you should. The benefits of downsizing are many and varied, and the holidays are a surprisingly good time to tackle the task.

Buying a home in your 20s was an exciting time. Who cared that the upstairs needed rewiring and the porch was on a slight tilt? You were a homeowner!

But as you reach retirement and start looking to buy a house for your new lifestyle, the process is obviously different. When it comes to buying a home at 65 versus buying one in your 20s, you’ll be taking a whole new list of concerns into account before you make your decision.

We all know walking is one of the safest, healthiest exercises we can do.

Walking is low-impact and plays a significant role in maintaining mobility, especially among older adults. It also helps prevent health risks, such as high blood pressure and loss of muscle and bone mass, that come with a sedentary lifestyle. Research indicates it may improve thinking skills and actively prevent cognitive loss. There’s even evidence walking may prevent depression.

Making the decision to move to a retirement community can be a little daunting. You may ask yourself, will joining a retirement community take away my independence? Will it change the lifestyle I’ve built for myself?

The real, honest answer is this: It’s whatever you make of it. If you choose the right community for your needs and interests, you’ll find it’s very easy to live your retirement however you want.

So how do you go about finding the right community? Well, if independence is what you’re looking for, it’s a great idea to start by looking at cooperative living communities.

Living in a retirement community is an investment in your future, just like when you were purchasing your first home. Therefore, evaluate it as an investment and ask yourself: Which place will provide the most benefits for what I’m paying?

One great option for getting a return on your investment is a senior cooperative retirement community. The unique co-op structure gives you financial benefits you wouldn’t get at other retirement communities.

When it comes to choosing between a cooperative retirement community and a continuing care retirement community, it’s important to know how the two types differ. Once you know what each brings to the table, it’ll be much easier to determine which one is the best fit for you.

Here’s a basic overview of a cooperative (or co-op) and a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) to help you on your search.

Residents of Sugar Hill Retirement Community are fortunate to have more than 130 acres to use for walking. They are even more fortunate to have the aid of students from the nearby Brewster Academy, who have taken on the task of redeveloping those trails as part of a community service project to make the trails more walkable for residents.

September is Self Improvement Month, but we engage in self-improvement throughout the year. Whether we up our exercise program a notch, vow to eat healthier or volunteer, many of our actions are driven by the urge to improve ourselves.

Restless legs syndrome is a term that has recently been in the media. Physicians and researchers complain that the term trivializes the disorder, which is also called Willis-Ekbom Syndrome. The disorder most commonly leads to sleep loss in both the sufferer and their partner, who may be awakened by the other’s movements.

Tinder has nothing on today’s seniors, who are finding romance at the numerous group activities offered by today’s retirement communities. Although most wouldn’t be caught dead using a dating app or website, senior living communities provide opportunities galore to get to know potential dating or marriage partners.