These uncles and aunties are going to put me out of a job. 😅
If you want to be amazed, watch the video!
At Green Lake in Kunming, I found seniors exercising, dancing, singing, playing music, and walking with their pets, with more energy than most people I know (one of them humiliated me at pushups).
It would not occur to anyone watching them to call any of this “therapy.” But with my professionally biased mind, I cannot help seeing physical exercise, pet therapy, music therapy, and dance therapy.
Maybe that is the takeaway: the best interventions do not feel like interventions.
They feel like a normal morning, a reason to leave home, friends who notice when you do not show up… fun!
Back in our senior living communities, this is precisely the challenge: organizing interactions that do not feel too organized.
You cannot manufacture spontaneity, but you can create the right conditions for it.
That philosophy should guide everything: staff training that enables rather than directs; architecture and layouts that encourage encounters; services that create opportunities, not just activity schedules; and residents who can initiate, contribute, and lead.
A lively community is not one where staff organize everything: it is one where residents start organizing themselves.
If these uncles and aunties represent the future of aging, perhaps our job is to create the conditions for them to put us out of a job. 😄
First published on LinkedIn, July 20, 2026. View the original post.