Love and Romance – It’s Never Too Late

Although movies and TV shows rarely do a good job of highlighting romance at all ages, senior adults are just as eager for love as adults of other age groups. In fact, romance can boost your overall perception of happiness. 

A study from Cambridge University revealed that older adults between the age of 50-89 who fostered emotional closeness and participated in intimate activities reported a higher quality of life[1]. When you place importance on your romantic relationships, you are actually making a health-conscious choice. 

Why It’s Important for Seniors to Experience Love and Romance

Your needs and desires might present differently as an older adult, but seniors still crave love, affection, and sensuality in their lives. Mature love and connection are not necessarily similar to the passionate rollercoaster of youthful romances, but these experiences are an important part of your overall well-being. Loneliness is a health issue. As social creatures, we need emotional and physical connection. Cultivating love and romance can help you create life-enriching relationships and companionship in your golden years. 

How to Initiate or Maintain Connection in Your Life

If you’re retired, you have a lot more unstructured time available. Use that time to nurture the emotional connections in your life.

This article isn’t just for seniors who want to make new connections. You might be wondering how to amp up your decades-long marriage, too. Love and romance should still be a priority no matter how long you have been together. 

Let’s take a look at how you can make new connections and maintain long-term connections.  

Making New Connections

Many elderly people are comfortable in their own skin. What a gift! As you start to feel more interested in dating, seek out people, dates, and connections that make you feel like yourself. 

Some tips for making new connections include:

• Join a club or volunteer group. You’ll connect with people who have similar interests to you already. This is a great jumping-off point for forming deeper connections.
• If you feel comfortable, let your friends and family know you want to meet new people. Your loved ones can connect you with other older adults looking for love and romance. Plus, your loved ones know you well and should be able to recommend partners who would complement you nicely.
• Use senior-specific dating sites. Exercise caution when making connections online[2]. Not everyone is who they say they are, and you can weed out many people with a simple Google search to confirm their identity.
• Meet new people in public spaces. This tip is especially important if you met this person online. For your own safety, you should plan to have the first few dates in public.
• Make friends first. Enter each new date with the hope of making a new friend. If it doesn’t turn out to be a romantic connection, then you have a new platonic relationship to enjoy.
• Be clear about what you want and need. This is important not only for your own search, but to be able to communicate it to the new people you will meet.

The opportunity to make new connections might have come at the cost of losing a beloved spouse. If this applies to you and you are finding it difficult to connect, consider reaching out to a mental health professional, grief support group, or using a widower-specific dating site[3]. 

Maintaining Long-Term Connections

If you and your partner have been married for many years, it’s normal to reach a stage of stagnancy, or even boredom. The light of early passion and chaos of raising children may have faded away. On the bright side, you get to explore this new life chapter together and decide exactly how you both want it to look.

Maintaining a long-term connection with your loved one could include:

• Making a bucket list together. Write down things you’ve always wanted to do, and try to do one activity together every month or two. 
• Setting time aside each week for a relationship check-in. Talk about what you need from your partner that week and hear about what they need from you. This will help you mitigate conflict.
• Planning a surprise getaway for you and your partner. Think outside the box and you’ll likely create a totally new memory for the two of you to share.
• Trying something new in your intimate life.
• Integrating hugs, kisses, and snuggles into your everyday interactions. These acts of intimacy will re-connect the two of you and maintain a sense of closeness.
• Taking some time to yourself. Does this sound counterintuitive? It might! However, you and your partner could both benefit from taking time each week to do solo activities[4]. Spend time with other friends and family or practice a personal hobby. 
• Expressing love regularly. Over time, the instinct to regularly say “I love you,” “I appreciate you,” or even, “thank you” might fade. Intentionally tell your partner how much you appreciate them throughout the day. 

Fun Date Ideas

Ready to introduce some love and romance into your life? Many times, that first step includes a date. The following date ideas are great for first time meet-ups or a monthly date night with your partner. Each one focuses on something you can do close to home.

• Pick a meal to cook together– in person or over Zoom! 
• Plan a walk or picnic in the park, weather cooperating. Use an On-the-Go Wrist Watch Medical Alert + GPS + Pedometer to count your steps.
• Volunteer together. Pick a cause you both care about and help out your fellow community members.
• See a local band perform. 
• Get tickets for a local theater performance. 
• Pair up with other couple friends and take a nearby weekend trip. Explore locations that are close to home to reduce travel time. 

Enhance Your Well-being with a Medical Alert System

Put simply, love and romance are more than just a burst of passion, wedding vows, or a fun date. As the aforementioned Cambridge University study reports, emotional connections can enhance your quality of life. The creation and maintenance of emotional connections is integral to your well-being. 

Prioritizing your well-being can take many forms. Whether you’ve already found a partner or you’re just starting your love and romance journey, a medical alert system can make you feel safe, secure, and comfortable. An alert necklace or bracelet for seniors helps make sure you and your loved one are safe, whether you live together or not. 

How Medical Alert Systems Work

Why do you and your loved one need a personal emergency response system (PERS)? Above all: a sense of relief. Many older adults choose to age in place, and some live alone. Though you might live with your partner, that is not the case for all seniors. Even when you live with others, you cannot always guarantee someone will be around to help in case of a fall or other emergency event. 

This is when an alert pendant becomes particularly helpful, specifically options with fall detection technology. A button alarm with fall detection technology can sense falls and place an automatic call to a 24/7 Command Center. If you or your loved one live apart, this technology may help you feel more in control of your safety. 

Alert systems for the elderly that do not have fall detection technology are also easy to use. All you need to do is press a button and you will connect with a certified and trained agent. This agent will stay on the line with you until emergency help arrives. You may not want or need 911, so the agent will contact your list of loved ones, friends, and/or neighbors to make sure you get the appropriate level of care. 

Finding the Perfect Fit

Perhaps you’re reading this article because you want to have love and romance in your life. Maybe you’ve joined a dating site or committed to taking your current partner on monthly date nights. Whatever your situation might be, you are committed to finding the perfect fit. 

That commitment shouldn’t stop with your love life. Choosing the emergency alert device can make you and your loved one feel more secure. If you’re currently partnered and living with that person, you might consider:

• In-Home medical alert system
• In-Home + Fall Detection medical alert system

However, you might be spending more time making connections out of the house. A personal emergency alert system makes a great addition to any date. You should look at:

• On-the-Go medical alert system
• On-the-Go + Fall Detection alert system for seniors

Whether you are married or single, male or female, there’s an Alert1 medical alert system that will support you through every phase of partnership and connection.