I Just Turned Eighteen – Proactive Aging

 

 

 

As I was leaving the gym after teaching my Spin class I heard one young woman behind me say to her friend, “I just turned eighteen so I’m just getting used to being eighteen.” I turned around to see two very lovely young women. They looked so young and so naïve. I thought to myself, “I’m trying to get used to the fact that I am almost old enough to get on Medicare and collect my SSI!

I can tell you a blink ago I was eighteen. At eighteen you are consider an adult and now responsible for your actions. But eighteen is very young. What do you know of the world at eighteen? Most young people are still under the care of their parents unless you were like me and on your own at eighteen.

I knew nothing of the world and so set out to learn in the school of hard knocks. Unsheltered and naïve I stumbled and made many mistakes. But somehow back then it all seemed right. Everyone was a bit more mature, a lot less privileged and searching to be free. After all we were the hippie generation with free love and peace.  Ahh… to live in the ideals of youth!

I  wanted to stop and ask the young lady what she was adjusting to?  But I didn’t. Was it the number eighteen, her new found adultness or the fact that she is so young and beautiful and her whole adult life is ahead of her? I’m adjusting also to my number, my senior-ness and looking at my life as more behind me than in front of me.

But would I be eighteen again? No, the angst of maturing through life is something I don’t want to repeat. I’m rather comfortable in my own skin and rather wise to the world. I’m not questioning. I’m appreciating where I have been, where I am at and where I hope to go.

I’m just getting used to the number that comes with being a senior citizen.

Doctor Lynn

 http://www.facebook.com/DrLynnAnderson

How many times have I made the bed? Proactive Aging

 

 

 

 

This morning as I was making the bed I wondered how many times in my life I had made my bed. I make my bed every day because my mother taught me as a young child both how to make a bed and the importance of daily organization. A well-made bed is a good start to the day and a welcoming comfort at bed time.

I believe I started making my bed at about the age of ten. There are 365 days in a year so my best estimate is that I have made my bed 19,710 times. Does that mean I have been organized 19,710 days? Not exactly, but I can tell you I am an organized and rather tidy person so I guess my mother was right.

What concerns me the most is how fast the time goes from one bed making to the other? I make my bed and before I know it I am making it again. The first thing I do each day is wake up in my bed and the last thing I do at night is go to sleep in my bed. It is my refuge from the world. I have always felt safe and secure snuggled into my bed. I am one of the lucky ones. I have always had a warm safe place to sleep. Many people don’t.

I do need to subtract from 19,710 the number of nights I have slept in a hotel. In a hotel you never make the bed. I also have to subtract the week I spent in the hospital unable to get out of bed. I also need to subtract the times someone else made the bed for me. But I can make up for this loss by counting the number of times I made my children’s beds or made the bed for someone else.

All I can tell you is that I have made the bed a lot times in my life. I am lucky to have a bed and to have the ability to make it each day. Most of all I am lucky to be able to get up out of bed, to have my feet hit the floor, and get up and move.

 Next time you make your bed think about how many times you have laid down in a bed and slept in peace. Think about how important a bed is to your life. It is a place or refuge, a place of rest, a place of love, a place of sleep and a place of dreams.

In the end we will all count our time on earth by the days we lived and nights we’ve slept. Be grateful each time you make your bed because it is the start of another day and if you make your bed with care it will welcome you back over and over again. It is the place where dreams are made and where life gets renewed for another new day. How many times have you made your bed? If you are lucky it’s been many times and counting.

Doctor Lynn

http://www.facebook.com/DrLynnAnderson

I feel my age this week – Proactive Aging

 

 

 

 

 

My arthritis is kicking up this week. It is making me a little tired. I feel my age this week although I hate to admit it. Admitting it will not accomplish anything but slow me down and I don’t want to slow down. What I would like is about 20 percent more energy than I feel these days and no more aches and pains. That’s not a lot to ask; is it?

Proactive aging means to be positive about aging while at the same time doing whatever you can to slow the process and improve the quality of your life. Arthritis will slow you down if you let it. It can also motivate you to keep moving and seek out alternatives to drugs and toxic medicines. Moving the body while using the breath creates a flow of movement that is supportive and kind. This is what is needed to ease the burden of arthritis.

Kindness is important when it comes to aging. Frustration and anger only makes the whole process worse. Nobody ever said it was great growing old. Aging creates limitations, but those limitations don’t need to define us or prevent us from doing the things we love. We just need to be kind to ourselves and make small adjustment and modifications.

Modification means being flexible and willing to adjust to each situation without becoming weak and unforgiving. Life changes from decade to decade. Some of the changes create a deeper and greater strength and some take it away. What is taken away is always replaced with something more dearly needed. As my physical stamina gives way to my sense of wisdom I realize that feeling my age is not such a bad thing. The body may struggle and finally succumb to aging, but the wisdom gained through a life lived has taught me to pace myself because my age is just a number and the numbers run out at some point. Pacing gives me time to enjoy the little things in life that I missed when I was younger and didn’t feel my age.

Doctor Lynn

http://www.facebook.com/DrLynnAnderson

Get up move – check out Doctor Lynn’s Anti- Aging Workouts

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The Handbag Dilemma Time for a Purge– Proactive Aging

 

 

 

Recently I have begun to feel some soreness and pain in my shoulders. This is partly due to the onset of arthritis, as well as over working my body and carrying heavy handbags. Suddenly those large handbags filled to the brim with all sorts  stuff, such as my sunglasses, my wallet, my phone, my bottle of water, my sweater, my keys, my comb and my lipstick are starting to affect how I feel. Not to mention that some of my handbags are heavy in and of themselves. Time for a purge.

I have started to consider the weight of my handbags. Ten to fifteen pounds would be about right. This weight is dead weight I carry of my shoulder or dangling from my arm. In the last year I have gotten tennis elbow and a damages rotator cuff most likely from exercising too much, but also exaggerated by the weight of my handbags.

The first thing I did was feel the weight of my handbags without any content. If heavy they are being tossed away. My new bags are the light weight tote handbags. I am getting them in size large not so I can put more in, but so that what I put in gets distributed throughout the bag.

What do I need?  I need my driver’s license, a credit card and a little cash. I also need my keys and my cell phone. My sunglasses are a must, but I can wear them. A comb and lipstick will get me through any situation. Now my bag is light and I am free from the burden of carrying all that weight.

I try to carry my handbag straps nestled into my bent elbow to avoid the pull of the bag from stretching and hurting my tendons. Sometimes I slip it up onto my shoulder, but always make sure I slip it from shoulder to shoulder to even out the strain.

When I was younger I didn’t concern myself with tendons, shoulders, joints and pain. But now that I am getting older I realize that purging a few things is good for the body, the mind and the soul. How much do I really need? I am purging myself of the heavy things in life, like excess weight and unneeded items. Aging has taught me that too heavy a load creates drooping shoulders and an aching body, mind and soul.  Take some time to purge and lighten the load because some things in life are just too heavy to carry. They will just weigh you down and cause you pain. Only carry what you need. That’s a proactive approach to aging. Lighten up because it is good for your body, your mind and your soul. Dilemma settled!

Doctor Lynn

http://www.facebook.com/DrLynnAnderson