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How Social Life Thrives in Senior Living in Sheboygan

Written by Discovery Senior Living | Dec 22, 2025 5:00:00 AM

Enjoying senior living in Sheboygan alongside friends can improve your mental, physical, and emotional wellness. You can maintain friendships in assisted living by engaging in hobbies, exercising, and volunteering together.

According to Michigan Medicine, about one in three older adults experiences loneliness and isolation. Social isolation and loneliness may increase your risk of chronic health conditions like cardiovascular disease. 

Senior living in Sheboygan can offer opportunities to connect with other seniors in your community. Resident engagement could improve your mental, physical, and emotional wellness.

What Sheboygan senior events are available, and how can participating promote social wellness for older adults? Read on to find out and enhance your retirement in Sheboygan, WI. 

What Is the Importance of Social Wellness for Older Adults?

According to the National Institute on Aging, social isolation and loneliness may increase your risk of:

  • Heart disease
  • Obesity
  • High blood pressure
  • A weakened immune system
  • Cognitive decline
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • An early death

Socializing with other seniors may improve your overall well-being and quality of life. It may help:

  • Boost your self-confidence
  • Improve sleep quality
  • Improve your mood
  • Decrease PTSD symptoms
  • Improve your sense of self-worth
  • Increase your sense of purpose
  • Enhance feelings of empathy for others
  • Prevent cognitive decline
  • Reduce inflammation
  • Increase cardiovascular health
  • Lower blood pressure
  • Reduce hypertension
  • Decrease the risk for certain cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis

Connecting with your community may help you enjoy a healthier, longer life. 

How Can I Start Friendships in Assisted Living?

To start building friendships in assisted living, try:

  • Participating in group activities
  • Breaking the ice
  • Inviting someone over for coffee or tea
  • Keeping your door open
  • Bonding over meals
  • Volunteering within your community 
  • Attending social and community events

As you apply these tips, try to be patient. You can create deep, lasting bonds with other seniors through regular interactions.

Community Activities Seniors

Sheboygan senior events for resident engagement may include:

  • Hobbies
  • Exercise classes
  • Dining
  • Volunteering

Here are a few ways you can engage with other seniors within your community.

Hobbies

You can find new passions and hobbies through your senior living community's events and activities calendar, such as:

  • Drawing and painting
  • Sewing, knitting, crocheting, and quilting
  • Making cards
  • Photography
  • Woodworking
  • Puzzles
  • Dancing
  • Singing
  • Flower arranging
  • Playing board games or card games
  • Mahjong
  • Singing
  • Book club
  • Film nights
  • Educational lectures
  • Museum trips
  • Baking or cooking
  • Scrapbooking
  • Birdwatching
  • Gardening

According to Healthline, finding a hobby may improve your outlook on life. It could grant you a sense of satisfaction or purpose. Other benefits of engaging in hobbies include:

  • Fewer depressive symptoms
  • Increased levels of self-reported health
  • Greater levels of happiness
  • Feelings of life satisfaction
  • Stress relief
  • Anxiety management
  • High blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes prevention
  • Improved brain health and function
  • Enhanced sleep
  • Healthier aging

Engaging in group activities can help you meet seniors who share your interests. Consider working together on projects to forge stronger bonds. 

Exercise Classes

Explore exercise classes through your senior living community's fitness program. For example, you can join a walking or hiking group. According to Harvard Health Publishing, potential benefits of walking together include:

  • Socializing
  • Reduced risk of isolation and loneliness
  • Exercises the brain and protects thinking skills
  • Sharpens your memory and stimulates the growth of new brain cells
  • Keeps you on a schedule
  • Increases motivation and accountability
  • It's safer than walking alone
  • You can challenge each other
  • Encourages you to maintain a steady pace

Your friends can motivate you to explore different exercise classes. Choose a variety of flexibility and balance, cardio, and strength training classes. Aim for about 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity and two strength training sessions a week.  

Dining

Join friends for meals in your senior living community's dining room. Eating together may help:

  • You make healthier eating decisions
  • Encourage self-care
  • Enhance your sense of well-being
  • Reduce anxiety and depression symptoms
  • Improve mobility
  • Reduce your risk of chronic conditions
  • Encourage socializing and connection
  • You forge stronger relationships
  • Encourage you to try new dishes
  • Increase food security
  • Decrease loneliness and social isolation

Consider asking friends to help you cook or make a new dish. You can expand your skill set while bonding with friends within your community. 

Volunteering

Volunteering will give you an opportunity to give back to your community. Other benefits of volunteering include:

  • Improves mental health
  • Improves outlook on life
  • Reduces risk of dementia and other health issues
  • Prevents social isolation and loneliness
  • Promotes socialization
  • Grants you a sense of purpose and a new zest for life
  • Helps you meet new friends (and like-minded peers)
  • Teaches you new skills
  • Encourages you to find creative solutions
  • Bridges the generation gap
  • Helps you engage with old interests
  • Increases physical activity

Frequently Asked Questions

How Often Should Seniors Socialize?

According to a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, frequent socialization is linked to a longer lifespan in older people. For people who socialized occasionally, their "time to death" was delayed by 42%. For people who socialized nearly every day, this time was delayed by 87%.

To socialize more frequently, explore your senior living community's events and activities calendar. You can find opportunities every day to make new friends.

Once you start forging new friendships, maintain them. Invite friends over for meals, coffee, or to catch up.

Who Is At Risk of Social Isolation?

According to the CDC, individual risk factors for social isolation include:

  • Having a psychiatric or depressive condition
  • Having a long-term disability
  • Being marginalized or discriminated against
  • Having a chronic disease or condition
  • Facing a divorce, unemployment, or the loss of a loved one
  • Living in a hard-to-reach area
  • Having limited access to transportation
  • Facing language barriers

Older adults and adults who live alone face a higher risk. Consider moving into a senior living community if you're facing these risk factors.

Enhance Retirement With Senior Living in Sheboygan

Explore senior living in Sheboygan to forge new friendships. Engaging in social activities can benefit your health and quality of life. You can find more opportunities to socialize at LakeHouse Sheboygan.

We proudly rank number one in Customer Satisfaction Among Assisted Living & Memory Care Communities in the JD Power 2025 US Senior Living Satisfaction Study. Enjoy our exclusive lifestyle programs, including workouts in our wellness center and activities like live musical performances. Contact us to schedule your tour.