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Preparing  for Retirement Transitions

A report from a collaborative workshop of the UC Berkeley Retirement Center and Ashby Village.


What surprised you most about retirement?  
I’m just as busy as I was when I was working, and I’m still not doing the things I want to do in life,” responded a participant at a retirement transition workshop at the University of California Berkeley Retirement Center. “Me too,” echoed a large portion of the other participants.

Learning how to set boundaries is an important part of enjoying retirement. Retirees could easily take on so many wonderful projects that they don’t have time to enjoy them. To avoid the dilemma, one participant prepares himself every morning: “When I get out of bed, I look in the mirror and say, ‘No thanks.’

The workshop divided into three discussion groups:

1. Creating structure in retirement: how to find the  right balance between being too rigid and too open.
2. Purpose, identity, and meaning in retirement: how to do you respond to the question, “What are you doing these days?”
3. Body and health changes: how to deal with the physical changes and how others perceive you.

The workshop came out of an Ashby Village Retirement Support Group facilitated by Mary Graham and Joel Kaufmann. The workshop was held on January 18 and was open to both Ashby Village members and volunteers and UC employees.  

Joel and Mary instantly created community among our participants, guiding them in very deep and thoughtful discussions. There was a real buzz in the room!” stated UC Berkeley Retirement Center Director Cary Sweeney.  
Working with Ashby Village is a great match for the Retirement Center. It offers an opportunity for our retirees to explore some important transition questions and volunteer opportunities, and it helps promote the Village’s mission of building community to help members age in place.

Mary and Joel hope to conduct the workshop again in three months and to expand the focus of the retirement group to the more general topic of aging.  

For more information about future workshops or the retirement transition group, contact Mary Graham at 
marynelsongraham@gmail.com 




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