The Come Alive Project

Tag: Aging

  • Energy Bite 409 – Don’t Let Age Define You

    We all have perceptions and expectations of Aging. We see older people shuffling along, bent over, slow moving, morose, depressed, wrinkled and on and on. We often say that we don’t want to be like that. For some, it becomes an outright fear. Yet so many seniors don’t do anything to prevent it. We allow ourselves to “get old” based on those very perceptions and expectations.

    We don’t have to be like that. We know what has to be done and we can do those things necessary to maintain our youthful energy and improve our outward appearance.

    Our age should not be our defining feature. But if not our age, what will define us? How about our actions? How about our energy? How about our service to the people around us? How about what we do vs. how old we are? Just because we’re getting older doesn’t mean we are used up or are useless to the world. Hardly!

    Studies show that this fear of aging, and giving into those perceptions and expectations, begins as early as between 55 and 60 years old. But we have a lot of “life” left in us if we take care of ourselves and do those things we know we should be doing.

    Can you hold the door open for a younger person as a courtesy rather than let them hold the door for you? Can you be upbeat and chipper around your peers when they may be feeling a lack of hope for their future? Can you be a role model for other less positive seniors by being a model of energy and enthusiasm, alive with possibilities? Can you be someone to be looked up to by others instead of being a victim of a fear of your own future?

    Stereotypes happen because we see so much of it and we tend to think of them as the norm. And that stereotypical norm can catch up with you unless you do those things that will keep it from happening: Movement, good eating, sleeping and breathing habits, and those other little things that can keep us feeling young and alive.

    You don’t have to act old. You don’t have to allow yourself to be defined by your age, no matter what you chronological age happens to be. Define yourself by your energy, your enthusiasm and your actions instead. Become the role model for good health, fitness and personal energy so that others can see that they don’t have to “Let the Old Man or Woman In”

    Thank your for reading.

    NOTE: I hope that by next week, I will be publishing these posts under the name  SeniorFlow Moments rather than Energy Bites. I will be migrating the website to SeniorFlow.net which is currently under construction. Everything else will remain the same. But PLEASE, don’t sign up for the blog on the form on the SeniorFlow website. You will get a duplicate of the post. Thank you.  

  • Energy Bite 404 – What Next?

    As we move through life, retire, or just move on to new things, we become affected by lack of action or activity, lack of mental stimulation and lack of engagement with people, places and things. Some reading this aren’t there yet, most are. For those that aren’t, prepare yourself.

    Energy dissipates and disillusionment, boredom and often isolation move in and become normal. We are not used to the isolation, boredom and even depression that too often comes to older adults as they retire and move into a new phase of life.

    This happens to ALL seniors at one point or another. Some move through it as a temporary phase. For many, or even most others, it becomes a long term problem and we want and need to move through it.

    We have been active. Working. Projects. Doing things. But now, most of that is beginning to be behind us. Yet, we still crave the activity and action.

    Like the soldier who has been in combat, when the battles are over. He or she thinks . . . WHAT NEXT? WHERE’S THE ACTION? After all, what can be as exciting as being in combat, in action, with my friends. You have come from a place of excitement to a place of dullness, boredom, lack of fulfillment and purpose. What’s next

    Or how about athletes who have come to the end of their active participation? What can they do? They deteriorate. They stop working out. They stop eating for performance. They become inactive, sedentary and dull. Their bodies expand and the alertness from being on the field disappears. They often look for “experiences” that match the excitement on the field but can’t seem to find them. What next?

    Or you. You have had a stimulating job or project and now it is going or gone. You pretty much enjoyed it but it’s time to move on. You want something new and different. What Next?

    But there are things that can make you come alive again. One doesn’t have to go to war to feel active and useful. One doesn’t have to be an ex-Olympian, or ex-NFL player to recover that feeling of aliveness. What next?

    Here are some thoughts:

    There are activities that Seniors can engage in. There are Community activities one can engage in. There are volunteer opportunities. My wife has been a volunteer at the local hospital for many, many years and gets a huge sense of accomplishment as a result. She also continued as a substitute teacher in the local school system for over 15 years after active duty in the classroom for 34 years.

    You can engage in a legacy project. What do you really enjoy doing? What are you good at? The Come Alive Project is my own legacy project. I’m helping inspire seniors to keep their Personal Energy at a high level and live a healthy, fit, energetic, enthusiastic and engaged Senior life. I do it through writing, speaking and soon . . . some video. I have done a number of mini-workshops for Senior Groups and participated in a local Health Fair. It keeps me active.

    There are also sports and athletic activities available for Seniors. Many are ardent golfers and make golf a part of their lifestyle. The sport of “Pickleball” is growing exponentially in the senior community. Many community tennis facilities are converting at least one court for Pickleball. There are others.

    I have friends my age who serve on community boards, who ski, who consult doing what they did in their jobs, who have online businesses, who have started new solopreneur ventures. There is a lot for Seniors to do in the real world to eliminate boredom, and provide those missing qualities of Action/Activity, Mental Stimulation and Engagement that we tend to lose when we move into that new stage of “Seniorhood”. But we have to either look for them or create them. For the most part, they won’t come to us.

    As I wrote in the opening paragraph, many reading this message aren’t quite at that point yet, but many are. If you are not there yet, start preparing now.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 397 – What a Great Time to Be A Senior – Here’s Why

    Most men and women entering their Senior years just a few years ago, looked forward to a leisurely retirement: a life of security and ease, with few cares in the world.

    Not any more. Today, what they’re really after is a relief from boredom, a more active and healthy lifestyle, and relief from worry about things like long, lingering illness, falling, or being a burden on family or society. More and more, seniors are looking for something new, new experiences that keep them active. As Joseph Campbell said, “I think people are really looking for an experience of being alive.”

    So, imagine what it might feel like to wake up in the morning feeling really alive, looking forward to the day ahead, and having the energy and vitality to be able to spend your day active and productive — doing the things you want to do and not being dependent on having others tell you how to get through your day.

    Or how about this. Imagine being in total control of your body and mind, with the strength and agility to avoid falls, the ability to climb stairs with comfort and ease, the ability to bend and twist and move your body any way you want to — total mastery over the way you move and control your body — as well as total control over the way you think and use your mind as you go through life.

    Imagine how good it feels to be comfortable with the idea of being or doing anything you have ever wanted to do with your life and just haven’t done yet for one reason or another.

    This isn’t a pipe dream, and in fact Seniors everywhere are beginning to realize that getting older is no longer a true barrier to doing whatever they want to do with the rest of their lives. And Seniors from most of the world are living longer, feeling better, and living in the Flow of Life, than at any time in world history. The current generation of Seniors is on the leading edge of the new movement of Seniors who expect more from themselves than just the normal perks of retirement.

    Today’s Seniors who get physically fit and transform their mindset for living, energize themselves with a vitality that Seniors of previous generations might only dream of. Fortunately, Seniors today have a better knowledge of exercise, nutrition and the other attributes of living longer lives, and they are putting that knowledge to use to delay the onset of rusty hinges, brittle bones and the other accoutrements of aging that previous generations incurred much earlier.

    The late Eric Butterworth, a Unity minister and author of numerous books on active living in the flow of life, said this:

    “There are literally thousands of moping people who could renew their strength and youthfulness to say nothing of finding freedom from aches and pains, if they would simply stir themselves in mind and body, get into the flow of consciousness and ‘into the swim’ of activities. The wisdom of the world conditioned us to ‘act our age.’ Now we must begin to act our youth – to act our experience in the flow of life.” – Eric Butterworth, In the Flow of Life, p. 139

    When we adopt those principles of healthy aging, we can be a truly valuable part of society and not a burden on it. And that’s a blessing for our generation and for the generations behind us. What a great time to be a Senior!

    Thank you for reading