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Award-winning authors Marcy Houle and Elizabeth Eckstrom have teamed up again following the success of their critically acclaimed book The Gift of Caring, winner of the 2016 National Christopher Award. This new book blends frontline science with inspirational stories and insights from wise elders for aging with health, joy, and purpose. The book explains how our bodies and brains age, defining what can be expected with aging and what is unusual. It demonstrates ways we can significantly increase our chances for a positive aging experience into our 80s, 90s and 100s. It offers key strategies for meeting the challenges of aging, informs us of issues of inclusion and equity, and advises on handling legal and financial affairs. The Gift of Aging illustrates how we can make the third act of our lives meaningful and fulfilling, ensuring we as elders can make a difference in our world.
Especially as we age, laughter is good for the soul. For a good, long life have a sense of humor. It can take us through life’s turns and twists. Mastery and grit are important for all ages. Create art. Good for the brain is the endeavor to want to improve. Stay active in your passions. Make modifications. Do what is possible. Keep going. Keep moving! Older people too often lose their confidence. They quit trying. They grow discouraged. They just quit living. The important thing is to keep trying at something you care about. Be willing to work for something and keep at it. It is part of our human nature to want to be able to create something.
Story of escaping the Holocaust and concentration camps. Becoming refugees. Lessons of adaptation. As we age, change is inevitable. Those who are successful are willing to make the necessary alterations to their current lifestyle. It’s all about adaptability. Two types of people as they age: Denialists and Realists. Anticipating and planning adjustments to your everyday way of doing things can make a tremendous difference in well-being. Ultimately, happiness comes from the inside, not the outside. It is understanding that each of us is a precious human life. If we can learn to adapt as we grow old, and be grateful, it allows us to find a new fullness of joy.
Losing someone you love. Finding love again. When my husband knew he was dying, he told me there are only two things, two assets we have that matter in this life. They are love and time. It is how you spend this time, and how you spend your love, that tells you who you are.
Aging is not about parents or old people. It’s about all of us. Centenarians in Blue Zones are largely free of diseases that plague the rest of us; heart disease, depression, diabetes are rare. People in Blue zones develop dementia at a 75% lower rate than in the US. Our book defines strategies that everyone might engage in—no matter what culture, population, region we live in--to enjoy these same benefits. As for happiness in aging, while 40 percent is dictated by our genes, 40 % is under our own control. There are positive ways to care for our mind, body, and soul, and to cultivate the vitality of each.
Career wellbeing is one of the major differentiators that helps people live into their 90s. Planning for the future. When plans don’t plan out the way you hope, though, that’s when you turn the page and make a new list. Developed Bob’s Red Mill, Healthy Foods. There are great benefits of keeping working. Important to help others. Search for something important to you, something you believe in. Even after significant setbacks and losses, keep believing. Never give up.
Aging and Memory in the African American Community. Pregnant women exposed to high temperatures or air pollution are more likely to have children who are premature, underweight, or stillborn, and the effects hurt African American mothers and babies most. The population of those over 80 will increase 80% in the next ten years. Many older Americans who live with disabilities will not be able to pay for adequate housing, food, medicine and personal care. Many families of color are unable to pay for healthcare.
Indigenous perspective on aging is different from what we are used to seeing in our current culture. In native culture, it is not only important to be respectful of your elders but responsible for caring for them. You learn very quickly that elders are a part of your life because they teach you what you need to know. Elders are the architects of the culture. They instill the traditions. Now we have the great distractions of technology—distractions that take us away from what our generations begore us gave to us. In Native communities, elders and young people are held in high esteem. Young people are the purpose for it all. That’s why elders have an obligation. Everyone must understand their obligation to the next generation, especially as we grow older . You always have the gift of youth inside you. But it’s up to you to rekindle it and to bring it back. It is our duty as elders to live, not just for ourselves, but for the generations of young people coming after us and for the earth.
Today in US, thousands of older people are living in social isolation. Research shows that loneliness leads to poor health outcomes. Social isolation increases risk of developing dementia and heart disease as one ages. Humanitude is an internationally recognized network. It is a well-researched treatment of compassionate care. A kind gaze, a gentle touch or tender speech immediately triggers oxytocin, and releases in people confidence and love. Unfortunately, too many senior end up trapped in their own living arrangements and become cut off socially …removed from humanity. Nursing home study: In a 24-hour period researchers found that patients were spoken to for only two minutes. Studies of hundreds of patients in care settings where Humanitude is offered, reveal a very different scenario. Humanitude procedures reduce the incidence of delirium, agitation, and use of antipsychotic drugs by as much as 88%. The goal of Humanitude is not to ‘cure’ a person but to ‘care’ a person. All people deserve to stay a citizen of humanity until their final day.
When you get older you can see more deeply into the things around you and get more satisfaction. The spiritual is coming at you, and it creates, if not a physical, but a mental and emotional adventure. No senior should be left inside. The gift of aging is climbing higher up this beautiful mountain that lets you see further each day. The base gets wider and the pinnacle gets higher. Life experience has built the mountain you stand on. From here you will find amazing discoveries because you can see far beneath you