Blogs–Creative Thinking and Innovation

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Retirement success=E+R?

[Photo credit: Anastasia Shuraeva/Pexels]

I have witnessed many people move into retirement. Some situations were voluntary, others mandatory.  Some people flourished.  Others declined.  To better understand these differences, I frequently ask people, “What advice would you have for a successful retirement?” 

After all, retirement may not bode well for the brain.  Heightened risks for cognitive decline and depression can loom for some entering this life chapter (Ravindranath, 2025).  In the older adult population, those individuals who are retired face higher levels of depression (Dang et al., 2022). 

My conclusion at the moment: Successful retirement equals E+R.  That is, “exercise” plus “relationships.” Perhaps the two things can even go hand in hand.  It is a simplified formula, of course, and a preliminary thought about well-being at this juncture.

Exercise (“E”) represents one of the pillars of lifestyle psychiatry.  However, many people fall short of the CDC recommendations for physical activity.  The National Council on Aging related that less than one-third of older Americans meet the suggested mark in this category. 

Viswanathan (2024) outlined the advantages of exercise at any age, including the release of brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), improved cognitive functioning, and an increased volume of the hippocampus.  It can also help with the reduction in the prevalence of depressive symptoms.

Another upside of exercise is its positive effect on chronic inflammation, which is a concern in both a cause and in signs of disease.  People with sedentary lifestyles tend to have higher levels of inflammation, and consistent movement often has beneficial effects (Friedman, 2025).

“R” (relationships), another pillar in lifestyle psychiatry, are equally important.  Beebe (2022) pointed to research finding that nearly 25% of people aged 65 or over are socially isolated.  “This circumstance,” she added, “is often terrible for your health, including your heart.”

The link to mental health and other areas of physical health is also clear.  Social isolation poses  health risks equal to smoking, hypertension, and obesity.  Social connections may even affect neurobiological circuitry in our brains and psychological resilience (Noordsy, Abbott-Frey, & Chawla, 2024).

Combining the “E” and “R” is one idea: Exercising with others could be a healthy option.  According to the National Council on Aging, some programs offered by community organizations have evidence-based benefits in health for older individuals. 

Another possibility—which holds for people of any age—is green space.  Walking in nature has multiple benefits from improved overall mental health and cognition to decreased mortality and cardiovascular disease, according to Peter James at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Moran, 2023). 

The hypothesis for this effect, James said, goes back to our roots: “We like being in nature because we are nature, we evolved in nature.  This is the setting we were meant to be in”  (Moran, 2023).    

Admittedly, the E+R equation is basic.  Other factors, such as diet, could be added, yet it seems to me that the exercise and relationship components are fundamental to success in retirement. 

References

Beebe, J. (2024, November 7). 10 worst habits for your heart.  AARP.  https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/avoiding-unhealthy-heart-habits/

Dang, L., Ananthasubramaniam, A., & Mezuk, B. (2022). Spotlight on the challenges of depression following retirement and opportunities for interventions.  Clinical Interventions in Aging, 17, 1037–1056. doi: 10.2147/CIA.S336301

Friedman, D. (2025, March 19). Here’s one more reason to try to exercise. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/19/well/move/inflammation-exercise.html

Moran, M. (2023, November). Movement emerges to include green space as a social determinant of mental health.  Psychiatric News, pp. 16, 37.

National Council on Aging. (2023, December 1). Exercise programs that promote senior fitness. https://www.ncoa.org/article/exercise-programs-that-promote-senior-fitness/

Noordsy, D., Abbott-Frey, A., & Chawla, V. (2024, March). Lifestyle psychiatry emphasizes behaviors supporting mental health. Psychiatric News, 29-32.

Viswanathan, R. (2024, July 19).  Exercise is neuroplastic medicine.  Psychiatric News.  https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2024.08.8.45

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A thank you

Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting at the American International School in Kuwait. It was a pleasure to be there!

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The creative sails of the Fram

Translated from Norwegian, the word “fram” means onward or forward, making it an ideal name for a ship with a “full steam ahead” mentality.    

One rather famous European ship has that very name.  This “Fram” was designed specifically for polar research in the late 1800s.  Funded in part by the Norwegian Parliament, the Fram was created to do something never done before: explore artic waters.  Other ships had failed, getting crushed by the pressure of the ice.

Fridtjof Nansen had another idea: don’t meet force with force.  Instead of trying to send ships through the massive ice of the Arctic Ocean, he devised a vessel that could withstand such barriers and stay at sea for years.  The innovative design—one never used previously—resulted in a vessel with a hull that would be lifted upward by the ice.  In addition, the Fram had a reinforced stern and rudder to further allow for ice-resistant strength, all the while being large enough for adequate crew and dogs to spend years at sea.   

Launched in Larvik in 1892, the Fram was highly successfully on three long-term expeditions.  In addition to her initial three-year Arctic Ocean expedition, the Fram found her way to the Nunavut region of Canada (1898-1902) and to Antarctica (1910-1912).    

The “reverse” idea—a ship that went with the pressure of the ice instead of against it—was transformational in her success.  According to the Fram Museum, “Today, she occupies a unique position in the history of exploration, being the ship with the record of sailing both furthest north and furthest south of any.”  Now over 130 years old, the Fram is on display at the museum in Norway.

Yet the story isn’t moored there.  Fly about 4500 miles due west to the east edge of Lake Union in Seattle where another “Fram”—a neighborhood, dog-friendly café—resides.

The owners, Tina Donahue and Gabe Hajiani, were taken by the Fram story while mountain biking in Norway in 2018, a time when they were struggling with how to develop their Seattle property. 

Gabe and Tina knew what they wanted to do: create a design forward, multi-use project that would give also something back to the neighborhood. They also wanted to remain on the property, but the process of assembling a group to make it happen simply wasn’t jelling. 

The Fram story emboldened their belief in the power of creative problem solving. It was then they resolved only to work with a team that was willing to share this belief. “They [the ship developers] needed to put a team together that believed in creativity and using creative problem-solving as a tool,” Gabe said.  Nansen’s collaboration 125 years prior pushed the couple to move onward, just as the word “fram” suggests, and assemble the right project team for what they were trying to achieve.

With the couple’s experience in technology and architecture, they sought outside expertise in making their dream happen over the next three years. They envisioned a multi-family, multi-use site that, according to Gabe, “hoped to reach beyond a building into a third place for the neighborhood.”

The café feature of the site opened last October, and deciding on its name was obvious to Tina.

“I had a bunch of stupid ideas,” Gabe confessed, “but Tina said, ‘No, we’re going to name it Fram. That’s where it all crystallized for us.’” 

His response? “Oh, yeah. Of course.”

And this creative Fram sails forward.