grow older better

Tag: Aging

  • Heat Waves Are Killers

    droughtEach year the earth is getting hotter and we are experiencing major heat waves and crop killing droughts.

    While we hear, usually well in advance, about taking precautions for tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards – we don't seem to get the same warnings through the media about heat waves.

    BUT:

    Natural disasters such as hurricanes, blizzards or tornadoes might be more dramatic and attention grabbing than a heat wave, but in reality, the heat may be capable of claiming more lives than even these violent storms.

    The drama of hurricanes may be great TV but the deaths from heat are greater in number and do not get as much coverage.

    Maybe because heat pictures are less interesting?

    And deaths from heat are not pretty?

    And sadly – maybe because most heat related deaths are older poorer people?

    Living alone, being poor, and being in an apartment building, hot sun on apartmentsare factors in heat related deaths.  the poor are congregated usually in the not-too-good parts of cities and no matter what is the temperature, residents do not open their windows because crime tends to enter.

    Open windows are an invitation to crime. That's a sad statistic about modern cultures. And older, poorer people do not tend to use air conditioners because either they aren't supplied or they fear they won't be able to pay the high electric bill.

    Please – if you have poor or elderly people living near you – do check on them.

    Most towns and cities have a cooling center where they can spend the day and some may have night services.

    We have overnight warming shelters for the extremely cold temperatures. We should have equivalent cooling shelters for the extremely hot weather.


  • Self-Esteem, Aging and Emotions

    self-esteem

             What is self-esteem?

     

    Mostly it refers to our sense of self worth – how good we feel about ourselves and how we self-measure our value to society.

    How we develop this sense of self worth is the story of psychological development.

    Our feelings about ourselves come from our parents, friends, ourselves, teachers, life.

    We see ourselves reflected in other people and other things – how we react to that assessment is the measure of our self-esteem.

    If we see ourselves as less than others we are deemed to have low self-esteem.

    If we have an internal sense of worth, not particularly tied to others, we are said to have good self-esteem.

    The below quote from Einstein gives us a great thought about judging the development self-worth in ourselves or in others.

    Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.

    Does self-esteem change over time? Oh yea!

    For good or for bad – we are in control of our self-esteem. But we must, as Einstein suggests, use the “right” criteria for how we judge ourselves. And we are capable of changing those criteria.

    As kids, we are more prone to the emotional clues and criteria awe get at home …. and that can be good for us or bad for us depending on our family and our culture.

    As we age, we learn [or should learn] to develop our own self-worth criteria – and we can undo what we learned from our parents.

    All parts of us change as we age…isn't it great that we not "stuck" emotionally or in negative self-esteem?

    It is good – because too many people never develop a solid internal set of self-worth criteria and tie their self-esteem to externals such as:

    work
    money
    house
    car
    kids
    sports
    spouse

    As we age, these above external ties change or disappear….

    What happens when the tie is loosened or the tie is totally broken or lost?

    We need to cope with the change!

    More on this topic coming…. stay tuned.

     

    Thoughts? Comments? Thank you

  • Our Golden Years Are Being Tarnished – Badly

    I posted about aging and economic insecurity

    and here is yet another glimpse into what it is like to be old in America in the 21st Century.


    We like to think the housing and foreclosure "crisis" has slowed down and that help has come to those who most need it.

    But it's not true for the elders among us.

    According to the AARP,  more than 3 millions older Americans face losing their homes.

    As of December 2011, approximately 3.5 million loans of people age 50+ were underwater—meaning homeowners owe more than their home is worth, so they have no equity; 600,000 loans of people age 50+ were in foreclosure, and another 625,000 loans were 90 or more days delinquent. From 2007 to 2011, more than 1.5 million older Americans lost their homes as a result of the mortgage crisis.

    We had years of no increase in Social Security Income, a very bad economy which destroyed retirement savings accounts, a lack of jobs, and ever increasing costs for food, fuel, heat, and medications. On top of this, towns and cities have also lost income and have raised property taxes to cover services. It became a vicious cycle and that has led to many of these foreclosures.

    Older Americans lost their savings and now they are losing their homes.

    What financial institutions are going to work out a negotiated deal on a mortgage or home equity loan for someone who has a fixed income and increasing costs of living?

    What happened to the "respect your elders" that we used to hear?

     

    Thoughts about what can be done?

  • Inactivity is BAD

    sitting too many hours

    I posted about sitting more than 3 hours a day as being bad for us…

    then this came across my screen:

    Inactivity is BAD BAD BAD

    Inactivity is a major cause of death worldwide, with new research suggesting that a sedentary lifestyle is on par with both smoking and obesity when it comes to raising the risk for disease and mortality.

    Since posting the first bit of research I have tried to not sit as much and move around a lot more yet here I am sitting …. again.

    No matter how health conscious we are, it takes a whole lot more being conscious of how much sitting we do and how inactive we really are.

    All this research is forcing me to take a look at my lifestyle and make changes.

    I'm getting a new laptop and I plan on standing a lot more when I am on the computer…that's hard to do right now…

    And as it is summer and nice out, I am walking more, biking and kayaking – but sitting is still something I am doing too much of..

     

    Thoughts? Comments? Thank you….





  • Our Golden Years? Not Really

    golden_years

    Reaching 65, retiring, relaxing and having fun used to be the goal of most Americans…the "golden years" of aging.

    With the economic bust, many who thought they would be retired are still working….out of sheer necessity…they need the income and they sorely need the health insurance.

    According to the National Council on Aging:

    Over 20 million Americans aged 60+ are economically insecure—living at or below 250% of the federal poverty level (FPL) ($27,225 per year for a single person). These older adults struggle each day with rising housing and health care bills, inadequate nutrition, lack of access to transportation, diminished savings, and job loss. For older adults who are above the poverty level, one major adverse life event can change today’s realities into tomorrow’s troubles.

    Women, who earn less than men [77 cents to the man's dollar] fare less well as they age too. 56% are disadvantaged financially – while only 30% of men are.

    But life need not be economically bleak as we age.

    It may be difficult to find a "job" but it is far less difficult to have your own business.

    A business that can bring in sufficient income to take the tarnish off the golden years and make them shine!!

     

    If you want to learn more about being self-employed let me know…I've written some on this and will write more….

     

    Thoughts? Comments? Thanks!