Pull a Rodney Dangerfield

 Pull a Rodney Dangerfield

And go back to “school.” 

One major source of bliss later in life is having more freedom, as many empty nesters and retirees finally do, to choose how you spend your time. But golfing every day isn’t optimal.

 Older adults who spend some of that free time learning new things gain big benefits that can help keep them sharp and independent for years to come. Rachel Wu, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, studies cognitive agility across the life span and reports that the happiest and healthiest older adults don’t do just one favorite leisure activity day after day; instead, they dedicate time to learning new things and stay open to mastering new skills—even though it may give them some temporary, un-fun frustration. After she had adults between the ages of 58 and 86 take three classes simultaneously in subjects such as Spanish, digital photography, and painting, they significantly improved their cognitive scores on memory and attention tests, performing as well as adults 30 years younger.

 And remarkably, they went on to improve even further—so much so that when Wu and her colleagues gave them follow-up tests a year later, their cognitive scores were on par with undergraduate students’.