The Journey From Active Life To Retirement, Passo Fundo, Brazil

August 18, 2017

On July 15, 2017 in Passo Fundo, a large number of sisters from the Holy Cross Province participated in a workshop given by Professors Luiz A. Bettinelli and Agostinho Both about The journey from active life to retirement.

This workshop was part of a larger project carried out by the Province entitled “Being in harmony with life” with the goal of helping the sisters to deal with the various stages of the human aging process.

Retiring and leaving the working environment have a major impact on people’s lives. On the one hand, such changes demand the learning of new skills, as well as the reorganization of one’s personal life and social roles. On the other hand, there are different ways to experience it.

Work is one of the most important aspects of an individual’s identity. Just like a person´s name, it provides social recognition. In our culture, the professional role is one of the basic pillars of self-esteem, identity and sense of usefulness. The cessation of work and the consequent loss of the established social bonds can imply for the individual the loss of the quality of life and cause feelings of uselessness, loneliness and low self-esteem. [I Retired And Then What? Magalhães et al. 2005]

Retirement also has its positive side, since the individual starts to have more time available, either for leisure or to develop activities that have been dormant for a long time. [An Aging Population: A Brazilian Reality. Christina B. Veras et al. 1987]

Retirement is an adventure along an unknown path. Be patient. For the first time in life, you have to deal with a blank area.