We recently featured in Bucks and Berks Living Magazine sharing our advice on wellness this spring
Read the article below
While New Year's resolutions may have faded, spring offers us all a new opportunity to reinvigorate our goals and aspirations for the year ahead. As the gloomy winter days fade away they are replaced by longer days and warmer weather, which often bring with them a renewed sense of energy and a spring in all of our steps. This makes it the ideal time to take action and make positive changes to how we live.
For some of us that might mean embarking on the big spring clean, taking time to declutter the house, while for others, it’s picking up that desire to take up a new hobby, improve our wellbeing, or simply doing more of what we already enjoy.
Enabling people to achieve their goals and ambitions and live long, healthy and independent lives is something that is a priority for the team at Audley Villages
More than just a place to live, we actively support owners to improve their health and wellness. And while a key focus of this is the owner's physical wellbeing, the Audley team are focused on a holistic, whole-person approach, including seven other pillars; emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, social, and spiritual wellness.
Supporting the pillars of wellness
Owners moving into an Audley village automatically become a member of the Audley Club with access to a gym, spa, swimming pool and fitness classes such as zumba, pilates and yoga. These are run by expert personal trainers, who also work with owners on an individual basis, to help improve and maintain aspects of their physical wellbeing, from strength to coordination, or rehabilitation after an operation.
Mrs Smith, Audley Wycliffe Park:
“Well, I do go to the gym as much as I can. At my age, it's quite a challenge, but nevertheless, it's there. And I think it's a good thing to do. There's a book club and there's a bridge club. I mean, it's just wonderful.”
This is coupled with nutritional support, with specifically designed menus available at both Aston’s restaurant at Wycliffe Park and Kempton’s at Sunningdale Park, providing balanced options for owners, their loved ones and other guests visiting the village, or Audley Club.
But it’s not just physical health that is fundamental to our wellness as we get older, cultivating the mind is hugely important to our wider wellbeing and this shines through in Audley’s vibrant calendar of events which fills the year.
Activities such as mindfulness sessions, book clubs, cookery classes, music performances, themed evenings, and guest lectures on a range of topics keep owners at Wycliffe Park and Sunningdale Park connected to wider interests, fostering an important sense of purpose and belonging. This is alongside their own hobbies and interests, with owners volunteering helping young children learn to read or continue running their own businesses or working.
The events also help to build a strong sense of community with long-lasting friendships formed between owners. Loneliness can have a significant impact on our wellness through later life, but with owners able to get involved in as little, or as much as they like, there is little worry of isolation amongst the owners.
Dr White, Audley Sunningdale Park:
“In a retirement village there's absolutely no need to be lonely.”
The stunning Chiltern Hills that surround Audley Wycliffe Park provide the perfect opportunity for those who love walking to put on their boots and explore nature, while enjoying time with friends. Owners with four legged friends are often found meeting first thing in the morning, setting off for a dog walk through the grounds of the village and into the Chiltern Hills reaping the benefits to not just their physical health but also emotional, social and environmental wellness.
Ms Speight, Audley Wycliffe Park:
“There are lots of very nice places to see. And there are lots of lovely walks around this area if you're a walker.”
And the same can be said for the owners at Audley Sunningdale Park which is set in grounds that span 79 acres of gardens, lakes and extensive natural woodland. The village has 125 properties and with so much woodland to explore, deer spotting has become a popular activity in the village, with many owners eagerly awaiting sightings of fawns as we enter spring.
If you are inspired by spring, and taking some time to ensure that you are staying well across the eight pillars of wellness, we spoke to Emma Robinson, the new Health and Wellness Director at Audley Group for her top tips for focusing on your wellbeing this spring:
