Having been scared of water since childhood, Ivy was 95 when an instructor at Richmond Villages, the retirement home where she lives, encouraged her to give swimming one more go.
First walking tentatively through the pool holding the instructor’s hands, she’s since been able to learn proper swimming strokes.
“It made me feel so good overcoming my fear and I now really enjoy being in the water. I wish I’d learned to swim sooner but now my goal is to swim the length of the pool totally unassisted.”
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Excited, nervous, motivated, and hopeful… These are just some of the words so many of you have been using to describe taking on the FitMind50 challenge.
Whether you’ve been learning a language, trying out a new craft, taking a day trip to a new city or just experimenting with a different recipe for dinner, you’ve said stepping out of your comfort zone has made you feel great. And we’re so happy to hear it! After all, we started FitMind50last year as a challenge to encourage you to give 50 new things a go, based on the science that shows this can help protect your memory, boost your energy, grow your confidence and even lift your mood.
Now hundreds of you have signed up to the challenge and it’s never too late to join in. Take a look at what these amazing women say taking the plunge to try something new did for them…
How to join in #FitMind50
FitMind50 is a fun and free challenge where you pledge to try 50 new things. There’s no time limit and your 50 challenges can be anything from new hobbies to holidaying somewhere different. Even small changes such as reading a different author or trying a new genre of film all count.
Learning circus skills
When Sharon’s husband Paul died, her world fell apart. Supported by loved ones, she was encouraged to channel her grief into doing something new and was persuaded to have a go at learning circus skills. A group of friends invited her along to circus festivals where she had a go at learning the trapeze. She’s never looked back. “I loved it,” says Sharon (59).
“It opened my eyes to what my body could do. There was also a daredevil thrill!”
Going on to try other circus skills at other festivals, Sharon decided she wanted to make circus skills a regular part of her life and so took lessons in wire-walking with The Circus House Manchester. “You don’t start very high up and you do a lot of falling off, but the feeling when you make it across the wire is tremendous,” she says.
Now she is also part of the Northwich Juggling Club and her local U3Acircus group, where she does everything from plate spinning to acro-balance: “It’s like going to the gym – it improves your strength, flexibility and dexterity but is so much fun. It makes me feel excited about the future.”
Learning through online courses
Retired headteacher Kate was recommended an online learning website called FutureLearn and Kate was intrigued to see what it offered. “I’d been running in retirement to keep myself physically fit but I felt I needed something to keep my brain active, too,” says Kate (65).
Kate found an online course around nutrition and wellbeing provided by a leading UK university that she thought sounded interesting so started studying at home a few hours weekly.
“It gave me some discipline and I liked that there was no pressure to complete a qualification, it was just learning for the pleasure of learning.”
After a while, Kate took another course in ageing well, largely to help her elderly mother who’d just had a fall. “Through my learning I was able to talk to my mum and her doctors with confidence and be more assertive in asking the right questions about her health and care,” says Kate. “It’s also helped me think about future proofing my own life for when I’m older. Learning something again has just made me feel brilliant.”
Volunteer with animals
As mum to 17-year-old Callum who is autistic and sometimes schooled from home, Sharon has always struggled to find time for herself. But recently, when it became possible to leave Callum on his own for short periods, Sharon decided to do something she would enjoy for herself.
Luckily at that time, she happened to hear that Cats Protection was looking for a volunteer photographer to take snaps of the cats needing new homes. And with photography and cats being her two lifelong loves, it seemed the perfect opportunity!
“To start with I was extremely nervous as I’m quite shy,” says Sharon (53). After many years at home I was lacking in confidence, but volunteering has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone .
I can honestly say it’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
Start dancing
Having spent her working life in an office, Vanessa (62) wanted to get out and exercise but wanted more than just going to a gym. That’s when she heard about Fitsteps, a dance class conceived by Strictly Come Dancing professionals combining Latin and Ballroom dancing with an upbeat fitness class.
Going along to her first local class, Vanessa got such a buzz she kept going week after week. Eventually she started teaching a class of her own and now runs four classes a week. “Teaching has really built up my confidence and the dancing keeps me young. I’m fitter than I’ve ever been and it’s given me a real zest for life.”
Began crafting courses
When Penny’s husband bought her a gift voucher for Christmas for [CraftCourses](http://www.craft courses.com), allowing her to take a variety of workshops around the country, she was delighted.
“I’d always been interested in crafting but never really had time until I retired,” says Penny (63). Signing up to do a jewellery-making course, she was thrilled to create her very own pendant that she proudly wears now.
“I learned so much, including different jewellery- making techniques and I was surprised by what I created,” she says. Since then, Penny’s taken other courses and been inspired to paint and do crochet. “Working as an accountant for so many years, creativity was put on a back burner, but now it’s so nice to try new things.”
Signed up to a metalwork group
Karen has always loved to push herself so when a branch of the University of the Third Age, a nationwide movement to encourage older people to learn new things, opened on her home island of Guernsey, she was eager to sign up. As the premise of the U3A is that members set up their own interest groups to teach others something they’re knowledgeable or just curious about, Karen (60) started her own jam and chutney-making groups.
Keen to try something new for herself too, she then decided to sign up to a metalwork group where she learned welding, brazing, grinding and other techniques to make beautiful metal sculptures, including a snail. “Among my generation, women never really got the chance to learn things like this as we had to do domestic science at school instead, so it felt great to go into a workshop and produce something at the end of it,” she says.
Now, as well as the metalwork, Karen and her husband have started a U3A group in wine tasting and she has ambitions of learning to play the guitar. “I’m doing so many new things now that I never had time for while I was working. It’s just given me such pleasure to widen my horizons.”
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Sally Dhaiwal: After years attempting crochet but giving up, I persevered and made this rabbit!
Lesley Paine: Very happy to have found this challenge and as part of my 50 I’m planning to visit a different cathedral every month.
Shirley Blackwood: I did the walk over the roof of the O2. It was a wet climb but the Champagne at the top helped!
Patricia Mason: My first challenge has been signing up to Facebook so I can specifically join the FitMind50 group.
Jennifer Hill: FitMind50 inspired me to book my first solo holiday after my husband died eight years ago.
Fiona Jardine: I really struggle to do things out of the ordinary. But for the first time in three years I am going on holiday to Tenerife with my family.
Joan Anderson: I went to a community café event. I was a little anxious but had a lovely time. Sometimes it’s worth taking the plunge and trying new things.