grow older better

Tag: human development

  • Walking for brain fitness

    walking-good-for-brains

    WALK!!

    A  study found that walking isn't just great for weight loss or for just plain old exercise –

    it's great for your memory too!

    …researchers randomly assigned 120 healthy but sedentary men and women (average age mid-60s) to one of two exercise groups. One group walked around a track three times a week, building up to 40 minutes at a stretch; the other did a variety of less aerobic exercises, including yoga and resistance training with bands.

    After a year, brain scans showed that among the walkers, the hippocampus had increased in volume by about 2 percent on average; in the others, it had declined by about 1.4 percent.

    Your hippocampus is a part of the brain that is important for memory formation and normally it starts to atrophy around age 55 or 60. 

    The fact that  it actually increased is pretty amazing..

    It makes me want to go out and walk every day…

    Join me?

     

    Comments? thoughts?

  • Wow – You Don’t Look Your Age!

    birthday cake with many candles

    When people say, "You don't look your age" – or “I’d never have guessed you were that old,” we are supposed to think of it as a complement.

    But to me, the developmental psychologist, it means that they have a preconceived idea of what "my age" should look like: a preconceived notion or bias about certain ages; especially “older” ages. We are our ages; therefore we do look our age!

    We grow up with many biases about people and other things because having biases is a part of being human. Your biases are based on your family, community and culture.  [I write more about biases in You Can Totally Screw Up As A Mom And Still Raise Great Kids.]

    Certain biases are neither good nor bad, but it is important to know your own biases as they affect what you see, do and say. 

    And many of our biases center around "ages and stages." 

    We often compartmentalize people as being and looking certain ages and stages – and then we often comment on how they are not doing as we expected!

    "Stop acting like a child!"
    “Act your age!”
    “You are too old to be acting like that!”
    “You are too young to be acting like that!”

    The next time you are tempted to say anything relating to a person's "age," stop and think about what you really mean!

    Comments? Thank you

  • Brains and Multitasking Written Products

    In my book, You Can Totally Screw Up As A Mom And Still Raise Great Kids, I say this:

    I had a conversation one day with the mother of a one-year-old who was saying that her daughter's language development had seemed to stall – but that she was running all over the place. That happens – pieces of the development puzzle often compete with each other. Some adults, the saying goes, can't "think and chew gum at the same time." Well – in adults we see it as funny – in kids – it's part of the pattern of language and physical development.

    The body needs a lot of energy for language and for running – or in broader terms for cognitive development and physical development. At this point in your child’s life, it may be that the amount of energy required for one of these activities is so great, that one is all your child can do at a time. 

    After the walking/running is under control – language will zoom ahead. It hadn't stopped developing – it was still undergoing the process but we weren't seeing it – or hearing it. 

    Well – I seem to be like the child. I finished the book and fiddled with it: working on the cover and formatting to get it up for sale: You Can Totally Screw Up As A Mom And Still Raise Great Kids [on Amazon for your Kindle] and at Barnes and Noble for your Nook.

    Then my fingers and brain seemed to be controlled by another ebook just waiting to be written and that one is It's Not Always Baby Fat! which is about our childhood obesity epidemic.

    It too is now published:  It's Not Always Baby Fat! [for your Kindle] or [for your Nook.]

    BUT

    it seemed my brain, fingers and time can only go toward "so much" writing and then no more – and so my blog posting stopped! Just like the one-year-old's language development had stopped when she started running.

    I could switch from writing one book to the other – but until recently [a lull in the brain?] I could not switch from book to blog…

    Is it normal brain functioning? Or aging? Or just my quirk?

    Or is it a simply a good lesson to learn!

    That what we think of as childhood development is not always only in childhood – sometimes the same normal processes are at work in adults!

    Do you ever have tings like this happen?  Please share your thoughts.

  • Boomers! Welcome to my world!

    On January 1, 2011 the first wave of baby boomers started turning 65 and are now eligible for Medicare…

    Some worry there won't be sufficient funds in either Medicare or Social Security to last for the rest of their lives.

    Many boomers will not yet retire as they can not yet afford to do so!

    Medicare may be a good plan but the cost of participation tends to increase both on the Government side and the private sector side.  Medicare Advantage programs are not free…even to some say they are … you get what you pay for…

    And Social Security?  We are into the second year of no increase in the monthly payout.

    To add to the worries, if you live in Oregon – you have another concern if you are in a senior care facility.. or wind up in one….because Oregon elder care has glaring lacks!

    Federal law requires states to have an ombudsman to protect the rights of people in long-term care. The average state has one ombudsman monitoring 2,220 beds. Oregon has just one for 6,692 beds.

    Oregon relies on volunteers..but if everyone needs to keep working to afford to live – who will be the volunteers taking care of and looking out for Oregon's elder population?

    Scary thoughts to start your 65th birthdays!

    Thoughts? Comments? Thank you for posting below….

  • Funny Prayer about Getting Old

    A friend sent this to me for posting [thank you Britt]

    It plays on osme of the steretyopes I have written about but even so I laughed a lot watching it!