10 Simple Steps to making friends

Isolation and loneliness are worrisome for seniors as they age.  Staying socially active is important for all of us as we age. An active social life helps seniors connect and contribute to their community, maintain their sense of identity and self-worth, and gain greater happiness, in addition, seniors who have friends and have an active social life tend to have fewer unhealthy behaviors. However, over time many of us have lost the ability to meet new friends that we had when we were young.

As children and young adults, we learned how to make friends. As we age, death and disabilities take away many of these friends. We often need to relearn some social skills and that can be very challenging for shy people. I have my own technique for making friends but I recently came across this resource called 10 Simple Steps and found that most of the techniques I use are listed, but there were a few that I had not thought of for making friends. 

10 Simple Steps are for those who would like more friends in their lives and are not quite sure how to find them. Remember, you don’t have to do all these. Change can be difficult at any time of life, especially if a person is shy.  

These steps were developed by a group of seniors who had experienced a loss of a spouse or lost their social networks due to caregiving or other circumstances. These people created the Social Skills For Shy Seniors as part of the Eldercare Foundation’s Seniors’ Dialogues program.  Give these tips a try, or pass them on to someone you think might benefit from them.  Life is better when you have friends to talk to!