grow older better

Tag: human development

When I Was Young, I Wanted To Be A ……

Me? I always wanted to write.

When I was a kid, I used to write books for children.

They were usually about horses and/or dogs.

Anyway – I grew to be an adult who did write [and talk] about children because I was in the field of early childhood and developmental psychology – but I kept thinking about books for children.

Then somewhere in the early 70s I started writing some books, but in those pre-computer days it was typewriters, carbon paper, and sending manuscripts and queries to children’s magazine and book editors.

Never had much interest shown, but I still kept writing things for children, and things for adults. The adults ones, text books and Kindle books, were published and that was good.

BUT….I still wanted to write books for kids

Then a few weeks ago I thought okay – I saved all of these old type written papers and I looked and found them.

All sorts of writings. For children, adults, text book ideas, etc. With all my many moves, it was remarkable that the old files were not lost over the decades.

So now I am going to use the advent of technology to put these ideas into books for Kindle.

Even in the pre-technology days, somewhere in my head I always wished there was some way that would make it easy for me to put my words and my pictures together and you that day has arrived.

I am so happy that the world of technology has finally caught up with all the things that I’ve always wanted to do!

So – I am going to write some children’s books

When you are young, what did you want to do? Did you? Will you?

Comments?

Thank you.

04/22/2013
Your Aging Brain and Scams

It turns out that as we age, some brain changes seem to make it more difficult to assess untrustworthiness.

It turns out that older people have less activity in a part of the brain called the anterior insula.

A study on brains and scams indicates that:

One of the functions of this area of the brain is that it helps interpret sensations in the body that form “gut feelings,” according to lead author Elizabeth Castle.

[This part of our brain is sort of behind the green section in the image]

This may account for older persons being more prone to believing scam artists.

Email scams, telephone ploys and door-to-door scam artists are taking advantage of older citizens and taking off with large amounts of money.

The scammers seem to know this and older people are being targeted more and more..

So if you are getting older, or know people who are older – PLEASE tell them to say NO or “let me think about it” when asked for money, car rides, or approached by strangers to do “house repairs.”

Thoughts? Comments? Thank you.

04/07/2013
Boomers: No Longer The Healthiest Generation

Baby boomer?

Better watch that lifestyle!

Wow – for years the thinking was that the exercise-conscious generation, who ate organic food and who tended to not smoke, were healthier than past generations.

But no – boomers are unhealthier!!

Never mind the fact that Baby boomers have been dubbed the Healthiest Generation, since they have the longest life expectancy of any previous generation, and that they were able to exploit advances in medical care and reap the benefits of public health campaigns highlighting the dangers of smoking and unhealthy diets. That moniker may simply no longer apply, since it turns out that they have higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol than members of the previous generation

This is a far different version of where we are going as a culture then we previously thought. Will we, the older-than-boomers stay healthy enough to help take care of the generation after us?

Will their kids also be unhealthy?

Our national obesity levels indicate that today’s children may not live as long as did their parents. We are in fact shortening their lifespans!

And now we see it is creating potential disabilities in the boomer generation.

Where does this all lead in terms of aging? public policy? health guidelines?

I don’t know – but it shows boomers and the rest of us all need to make BIG changes to get and keep being as healthy as we can….

I am a believer in the idea that anyone can make changes at any time in their lives.

BUT – the time to start is

RIGHT NOW

Comments? Thank you!

04/03/2013
Learning The Hard Way – Again

Are you a winter hibernator?

I am – and it is not a good thing for our bodies.

[Maybe bears can do it –I can’t.]

In the winter, I tend to just take walks and do some stretching to keep my hamstrings flexible – but otherwise I kind of become someone who sits too much – and as we know, that is not good for a body.

As we get older, it seems we need to keep all parts in flexible working order and to do that, we cannot hibernate!

I re-learned this recently when I started back into doing yoga!

I had lost a real lot of my flexibility – and could not easily [or even] do much of what was so easy before I hibernated!!

The obvious moral of the story is that we all need to do a variety of exercising to stay flexible – and as we age, it seems we cannot take off for a long period of time without it having a major impact.

OUCH!

Comments? Thoughts? Thank you…..

04/02/2013
The “New” Empty Nest

Many parents know what an empty nest is……

But did you know it can happen more than once or twice?

The first time you child leaves home, be it for college, the military, or just finding their own place – you can experience empty nest.

Your experience overall depends on how many children you have and whether or not some are still home…but one day all the kids are gone – they flew away – and the nest is empty!

This experience, I have found, also comes about when a pet dies and you are suddenly petless…but that empty nest, can, in time can be refilled with another pet, or two, or three.

You can not refill the nest with more babies, toddlers, teenagers or adults…

unless…..

Your grown child or children come home to live with you and bring their family with them.

Suddenly, your nest is very full!

But then….as their life circumstances change – they leave!

And that is the "new" empty nest….when your now adults child who has lived with you for a long stretch, flies off again!

The economy has made this type of empty nest more prevalent – as more adult children are returning to the nest for varying lengths of time..

Your experience overall depends on how many children you have and whether or not some are still home…but one day all the kids are gone – they flew away – and the nest is empty!

This experience, I have found, also comes about when a pet dies and you are suddenly petless…but that empty nest, can, in time can be refilled with another pet, or two, or three.

You can not refill the nest with more babies, toddlers, teenagers or adults…

unless…..

Your grown child or children come home to live with you and bring their family with them.

Suddenly, your nest is very full!

But then….as their life circumstances change – they leave!

And that is the new empty nest….when your now adults child who has lived with you for a long stretch, flies off again!

The economy has made this syndrome more prevalent as more adults children are returning to the nest for varying lengths of time..

But, like most everything in life, each change has its ups and downs….

There is an ambivalence about having an empty nest….you miss the kids like mad…but you have more space, time and energy…because no matter what age your kids are, when they live with you, they take energy..

In future posts, I'll write about what I am doing with my bursts of energy – but in the meanwhile…

Do you have thoughts? Comments?

Thank you…..

10/01/2012