We all know the importance of maintaining a healthy body, but, as we age, do we know how to keep a healthy mind? The staff of The Terrace recognize that it is essential to stimulate the mind, by offering activities to enhance creativity and memory performance. Because lifestyle enrichment plays a critical role in maintaining brain resiliency as we age, the opportunity for travel for individuals of age can be great for their brain health. The Terrace recognizes that how a person lives each day can make a huge difference in keeping brains healthy, even influencing the delay or prevention of dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. Travel has long been associated with wellness at virtually every age: it breaks up routines, pushes the reset button on our lives, and we encounter new places, people, and things. Travel helps fuel the brain to function at a higher level. Novel and challenging places stimulate brain growth. “When you expose your brain to an environment that’s novel and complex or new and difficult, the brain literally reacts,” University of Pittsburgh neuropsychologist Pawl Nussbaum told the Chicago Tribune in 2014. New dendrites, or extensions, form and “your brain literally begins to look like a jungle,” he said.
Through travel activities, carefully planned and executed by the Activities Director, residents enjoy the art of learning that is experienced during their travels throughout the State of Missouri. The Director has stated, “it is something special about being in a new place and acquiring new information; a stimulation for the mind and body that will be an experience with twice the reward.” As an additional support, The Terrace Management, in providing a van and driver, recognizes that residents making new friends during travel with other Terrace residents is a worthy facility activity, and state-wide travel is also an ideal time to soak in the mental benefits of being with individuals you know well. Some of the highest levels of happiness are associated with spending quality time traveling with friends. Reminiscing on old times (like travel memories) with friends sparks enjoyment.
The Terrace residents, who have engaged in the Missouri travel activities, report an improved mood, more energy, and greater life satisfaction derived from the places they have visited with the friends they have made. They have learned about a dog that predicted the winner of the Kentucky Derby; the US westward expansion symbolized by the world’s tallest catenary arch; the final resting place of the 33rd US president; a 200- year-old vegetable and fruit market; County Club Plaza fountains; 100 years of Cardinal baseball history; etc.
Since the beginning of 2018, the residents of The Terrace have had the opportunity to see for the first time or, if long-term Missouri residents, to revisit, the following Missouri locations:
- Saint Louis Art Museum
- Nelson-Alkins Museum of Art
- Mark Twain Birthplace State Historical Site
- Cardinals Hall of Fame & Museum
- Missouri Botanical Garden
- Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (The Gateway Arch)
- National Blues Museum
- Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
- National WW1 Museum and Memorial
- Jim, The Wonder Dog Museum and Park
- Union Covered Bridge
- Mark Twain Birthplace State Historical Site
- Soulard Farmer’s Market
The year, 2018, is just half over and the above is only a partial listing of the Missouri locations visited by residents and each of these travels included dining at area historical and well-known restaurants, for example, Zia’s On The Hill; Broadway Oyster Bar; etc.
