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Brain Health in Retirement
2 Plays4 minutes ago
In this solo episode of Beyond Retirement, Jacquie reflects on the powerful insights from her recent conversation with cognitive scientist Dr. Therese Huston—and explores what they mean for life after work.
Retirement isn’t just a financial shift—it’s a cognitive, social, and emotional transformation. Jacquie walks listeners through the science behind memory changes, crystallized intelligence, and the identity shift that often hits after leaving full-time work. She discusses why cognitive challenges, social connection, stress management, and focused attention are critical pillars of brain health in retirement—and how to cultivate them intentionally.
From avoiding multitasking burnout to using meditation and green tea to protect your hippocampus, this episode is packed with practical tools and mindset shifts to help you thrive.
Key Topics:
- How identity and purpose shift after retirement
- Why social interaction is a cognitive necessity, not a luxury
- The dangers of retirement multitasking—and how to stay focused
- Real ways to manage chronic stress for brain protection
- The role of movement, mindfulness, and daily habits in long-term brain health
Thought to Ponder:
Are you structuring your retirement years for brain engagement, or letting distraction take the lead?
Try This:
Choose one activity this week that offers all three benefits: social connection, cognitive challenge, and joy.
Recommended
Transcript
Challenging Idyllic Retirement Visions
00:00:03
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Retirement. That's what we're all aiming at, right? But exactly what does that mean? conjures up visions of endless days of golf, drinks with little umbrellas in them on a tropical beach, feet up reading a book.
00:00:16
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Is that what it's all about? I don't think so. Life would get pretty dull after a while without anything meaningful to do, don't you think?
Exploring Life Post-Retirement
00:00:25
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I'm Jackie Doucette, and I'm on a mission to discover exactly what life is like beyond retirement.
00:00:30
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Join me while I chat with people who've already done it, who've retired to something rather than from something. Let's find out together exactly what's waiting for us when we say goodbye to that nine to five.
00:00:44
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Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Beyond Retirement.
Identity and Purpose Shifts
00:00:50
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hi everyone welcome to another episode of beyond retirement If you recall, last week I was talking with Dr. Therese Houston about brain health and neuroscience. <unk> Today I want to go a little deeper into something that's been on my mind, how all of this applies specifically to retirement.
00:01:08
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Because here's the thing, retirement isn't just about finances and time management, it's about identity, purpose, cognitive engagement, and understanding how your brain works and how to optimize it changes everything about how you approach this phase of life.
00:01:27
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Let's start with the identity shift that happens in retirement.
Finding New Purpose
00:01:31
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For most of our working lives, our job provides a huge part of our identity. When someone asks, what do you do?
00:01:37
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We have a ready answer. And that answer comes with built-in structure, social connections, cognitive challenges, and purpose.
00:01:47
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Then we retire. And suddenly all of that is optional. Some people thrive on that freedom. Others struggle with the loss of structure and purpose.
00:01:58
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And I think understanding brain science can help navigate that transition. And here's why.
Maintaining Brain Health
00:02:06
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Many of the things we naturally lose in retirement, daily cognitive challenges, regular social interaction, structured time, stress from problems to solve,
00:02:19
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are actually things our brains need to stay healthy. But the good news is we can intentionally create those conditions in our retirement years. Take cognitive challenges, for example.
00:02:33
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When Therese talked about crystallized intelligence peaking in our late 60s and 70s, that really resonated with me. This isn't about being as quick as we used to be. It's about leveraging our accumulated knowledge and pattern recognition in new ways.
00:02:50
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So, what does that look like in practice? For some people, it's learning a new language. The memory work, the pattern recognition, the problem solving. All of that exercises your brain in the exact ways that matter.
00:03:05
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For others, it might be writing a book, starting a business, taking on complex volunteer work, The key is finding something that genuinely challenges you.
Cognitive and Social Engagement
00:03:16
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Not something that's frustratingly beyond your abilities, but something that requires you to stretch, to think, to engage deeply, I realized that one of the reasons I started this podcast was for exactly this kind of cognitive engagement.
00:03:33
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Every interview requires me to research, ask thoughtful questions, listen actively, and synthesize complex information. That's brain work. Good brain work.
00:03:46
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Let's talk about the social connection piece. This is where the dance class recommendation really clicked for me. It's not just about the movement or the memory work, it's about the social environment.
00:03:58
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We know from research and from our own experience that social isolation is terrible for brain health. It increases risk of cognitive decline, depression, all sorts of health problems.
00:04:12
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But in retirement, social connections don't just happen automatically the way they did when we were working. You have to be intentional about creating them.
Social Interaction Benefits
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Dance classes, book clubs, volunteer organizations, sports leagues.
00:04:28
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These aren't just hobbies. They're brain health interventions. I'm part of a pickleball club and I'm realizing now why I love it so much. Yeah, it's exercise.
00:04:39
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Yeah, it's fun. But it's also a regular social connection with people who are going through similar life phases. We're solving problems together. How to improve our game. How to organize tournaments.
00:04:51
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How to build community. That matters for our brains.
00:04:57
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Now let's address the multitasking problem in the context of retirement.
Intentional Activity Focus
00:05:03
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You might think that multitasking is primarily a work problem, trying to juggle multiple projects, responding to emails, attending meetings.
00:05:12
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But I found that it shows up differently in retirement and it's just as damaging.
00:05:19
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The multitasking in retirement often looks like this. Trying to maintain all the same activities and commitments you had before, but without the structure that work provided. You're trying to stay connected with friends and family, pursue hobbies, volunteer, manage household projects, stay informed about current events, exercise, maybe do part-time work or consulting, and you're bouncing between all of it without real focus.
00:05:48
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The result? That same 37% drop in effectiveness that Therese mentioned. That same 47% increase in mistakes. That same inability to focus even when you try to dedicate time to one thing.
00:06:05
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I've been thinking a lot about how to avoid this trap. And I think it comes down to being as intentional about how we structure our time in retirement as we were about our careers. Not filling every hour with activities, but choosing fewer things and doing them more deeply.
00:06:22
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Single tasking our retirement, if you will.
Stress in Retirement
00:06:26
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What would that look like for you? Maybe it's deciding to really commit to one volunteer position rather than saying yes to five different organizations.
00:06:37
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Maybe it's choosing one creative project and giving it dedicated time rather than dabbling in 10 different hobbies. The goal isn't to be less engaged, it's to be more meaningfully engaged.
00:06:51
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Okay, so let's talk about the stress piece, because this part surprised me. I thought retirement would automatically be less stressful. No more work deadlines, no more performance reviews, no more juggling career demands with family responsibilities.
00:07:08
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But stress doesn't just disappear when you retire, it transforms.
Stress Management Techniques
00:07:13
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Maybe it's financial stress about whether your retirement savings will last. Maybe it's health concerns.
00:07:20
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Maybe it's navigating changing family dynamics. Maybe it's the existential stress of figuring out who you are without your career identity. And as Therese explained, chronic elevated cortisol shrinks your hippocampus.
00:07:36
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It damages the very part of your brain you're trying to protect. So managing stress isn't just about feeling calmer in the moment, it's about protecting your long-term cognitive health.
00:07:50
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The two techniques Therese taught me, the soothing self-touch and the breathing pattern, have become daily practices for me. Not because I'm constantly stressed, but because they're preventative maintenance for my brain.
00:08:04
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20 seconds here, a few breathing cycles there. It adds up. But beyond those techniques, I've been thinking about larger stress management in retirement. What are the sources of chronic stress, and how can I address them?
00:08:19
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For me, some of it is about setting better boundaries, learning to say no to commitments that drain me rather than energize me. Being more selective about news consumption.
00:08:31
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Creating financial plans that give me confidence rather than anxiety. These are all brain health interventions, even if we don't usually think of them that way.
Meditation and Attention Training
00:08:44
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The meditation piece has been interesting for me to explore as well. I've tried meditation before and I've always struggled with it. Sitting still, clearing my mind, it felt impossible and frankly, kind of boring.
00:08:59
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But what Therese said about the Healthy Minds app intrigued me because it combines education with practice. You learn why you're doing what you're doing, which makes it easier to stick with it.
00:09:10
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I've been using it for a few days now, and what I've realized is that meditation isn't about emptying your mind. It's about training your attention. And that's incredibly relevant for retirement, because without the structure of work, it's easy for your attention to become scattered.
00:09:27
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You spend entire days being busy, but not actually focused on anything meaningful. Meditation, even 10 minutes a day, is practice in directing your attention intentionally, which is exactly the skill you need to create a purposeful retirement.
Abundance and Cognitive Growth
00:09:47
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So let me connect all of this back to the core message. Your best brain days don't have to be behind you. I think we often approach retirement with a scarcity mindset.
00:09:59
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We're managing decline. We're trying to hold on to what we had. We're worried about what we're losing. But what if we approach it with an abundance mindset instead?
00:10:11
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Sure, I might not have the same processing speed I had when I was 25, but I have wisdom now. I have perspective. I have crystallized intelligence that's literally at its peak.
00:10:24
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And I can actively grow new neurons through simple practices. I can manage stress to protect my hippocampus. I can create the social connections and cognitive challenges my brain needs.
00:10:38
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I'm not trying to be who I was in my 30s. I'm becoming the best version of myself for this phase of life. That's a fundamentally different approach, and it changes everything.
00:10:49
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So what does all this mean practically?
Choosing Activities for Engagement
00:10:54
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I think it means being as intentional about brain health in retirement as we were about career development during our working years.
00:11:02
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It means choosing activities not because they're fun or they fill time, but because they provide cognitive engagement, social connection, and stress relief. It means protecting focus time and embracing single tasking, even when the world is constantly pulling us in multiple directions.
00:11:23
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It means building daily practices, green tea, stress reduction techniques, meditation, that compound over time to protect and enhance cognitive function.
00:11:36
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And it means letting go the narrative that aging is only about decline. Because the science is clear, if you do the right things, your brain can not only maintain its abilities, it can improve in specific, meaningful ways.
Planning for Brain Health
00:11:53
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So here's what I'm committing to based on everything I've learned from my conversation with Therese last week. I'm going to approach my retirement years as an opportunity for a different kind of cognitive peak.
00:12:04
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Not the quick processing, multitasking peak of youth, but the wisdom, pattern recognition, emotionally stable peak of accumulated life experience.
00:12:16
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I'm going to be intentional about creating the conditions my brain needs. Cognitive challenges that stretch me, social connections that sustain me, stress management practices that protect me.
00:12:32
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I'm going to single task my retirement, choosing fewer things and doing them more deeply with more focus and presence. And I'm going to trust the science. Green tea grows neurons.
00:12:45
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Dance classes combine movement, memory, and social connection. Meditation trains attention. Long exhales calm the amygdala. Small behavioral changes make you sharper today and sharper well into the future.
00:13:03
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That's not just a nice sentiment. That's science.
Preparing a Retirement Roadmap
00:13:08
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Thanks for hanging around with me today, and I will see you next week.
00:13:13
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And that's it for this episode of Beyond Retirement. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I hope you enjoyed it. Are you ready to start rocking your retirement? Head on over to www.beyondretirement.ca forward slash rocking it and sign up to plan out your own roadmap for retirement.
00:13:32
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Don't wait till it's too late.