This year’s Healthy Aging Month theme, Curiosity Has No Age Limit, invites older adults to keep learning, exploring and asking questions at every stage of life.
Most conversations about healthy aging focus on common aspects: staying active, eating well and keeping the mind sharp. At The Carrington, curiosity goes beyond new hobbies and travel plans. It also applies to the inner life, the beliefs, practices and sense of connection that shape how residents find meaning each day.
A growing body of research points to a connection between spirituality and mental health, especially for older adults navigating retirement, loss and life’s later chapters. Understanding the role of religion and spirituality in mental health offers a fresh way to think about what healthy aging can look like. It goes beyond the physical and reaches into how residents feel supported, grounded and connected.
The Benefits of Religion and Spirituality in Later Life
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, religion offers structure and a sense of belonging, connecting people through shared beliefs and practices. Spirituality, whether or not it’s tied to organized religion, centers on personal meaning, self-reflection and connection to something larger than oneself. Both paths can support emotional resilience in different but complementary ways.
A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Medicine examined religion and mental health across more than 100 studies involving nearly 80,000 older adults. Higher levels of religious and spiritual practice were linked to lower rates of anxiety and depression symptoms, along with greater life satisfaction, a stronger sense of meaning and richer social relationships. These findings echo a broader theme across mental health and spirituality research: connection, whether to a faith community, a practice or a personal belief system, supports well-being as people age.
The spiritual benefits researchers describe rarely come from belief alone. They tend to grow out of the practices and communities that spirituality brings: gathering with others, setting aside time for reflection and finding language for gratitude, grief and hope. For many older adults, these routines offer steadiness during a stage of life that brings change, such as retirement or the loss of a spouse or close friend.
Purpose, Connection and Longevity
Spiritual practices often nurture something else that matters deeply in later life: a sense of purpose. Researchers at Rush University followed more than 1,200 older adults. Those with a stronger sense of purpose faced roughly half the mortality risk of those with a lower sense of purpose over the study period. This finding held even after accounting for age, education and existing health conditions.
A JAMA Network Open study of nearly 7,000 adults over 50, drawn from the national Health and Retirement Study, reached a similar conclusion: a stronger sense of life purpose was associated with a meaningfully lower risk of death. For many older adults, spiritual practice and reflection are exactly where that sense of purpose takes root, whether through prayer, service to others or quiet contemplation on what matters most.
Researchers point to a few reasons why. Purpose and spiritual connection help buffer against chronic stress, encourage healthier daily habits and keep people engaged with the world around them. They also often accompany strong social ties, another well-documented factor in healthy aging. A meaningful life is one full of people, practices and beliefs that support it.
6 Everyday Ways To Nurture a Spiritual Life
Healthy aging encompasses more than the body. It includes emotional, mental and spiritual wellness. Here are six small daily habits that can help you build a deeper sense of connection over time. None require a particular faith tradition or a formal practice, just curiosity and consistency.
- Set aside time for stillness. Prayer, meditation or a few minutes of uninterrupted reflection each day can create space to reconnect with what matters.
- Keep a gratitude journal. Writing down a few things you appreciate each day builds awareness of meaning already present in daily life.
- Spend time with nature. A walk through a garden or courtyard offers a natural setting for reflection and calm. Or enhance your living space with indoor plants.
- Stay connected to a faith community or discussion group. Shared beliefs and traditions foster a sense of belonging and support.
- Have meaningful conversations. Talking with someone from a different generation or background about beliefs, values or life experience can spark connection.
- Volunteer or mentor. Contributing time and knowledge to others is, for many people, a spiritual practice in its own right.
A Community Built on Connection
At The Carrington, residents bring a wide range of beliefs, backgrounds and spiritual paths to daily life. That diversity is part of what makes our community feel like home. Whether it’s a quiet morning ritual, a conversation over coffee or a shared tradition passed down through generations, residents find their own way to nurture meaning and connection here.
This Healthy Aging Month, we’re celebrating curiosity in all its forms, including the questions that lead inward. Contact us to learn more about life at The Carrington and how residents build a spiritual life on their own terms, at every age.
Featured Image: Alex Tihonovs / Shutterstock