Tag: seniors wellness

A Walk in the Woods

It’s Spring—time to be at the cottage. When I arrived, the leaves were not out yet. The trees were bare, and I could see much more.

Wild Flowers in the Woods

Because the plants growing underneath these trees are getting more sun, they’ve come to open themselves to the rays of the mighty sun and open themselves in beautiful blooms carpeting the woods with its flowers. It’s lovely to see these blooms coming out of the rotting leaves. Life is back. It is in color.

Lily of the Valley

This year, there are many surprises. One of the best is the Lily of the Valley. I haven’t seen it for years, but this year, it surprised me. I thought I was dreaming, but it was there with its fragrant tiny flowers.

But my favorite is always the trillium. In the early Spring, it fills the woods with white flowers. Then, after pollination, they turn to mauve. There’s the occasional mix of deep purple and yellow.

The violets are out, too. Mixed with the bright dandelions, it’s a field to admire.

These flowers bloom whether we are there or not to admire them. It just is—Nature’s prime lesson at this time. This being is what we can model in our lives as seniors. Wilting and dropping are parts of life. We celebrate it as we do the rising and the blooming.

Observing Nature with its changes every season, I think of the seasons in our lives. We go through stages, and when this happens, we resist with force and try all ways to alter them. Instead, Nature shows us how to be with the changes and live through them. Be excited about them.

Living through these changes is not at all a passive stance. It is a complete acceptance of what is happening and living it thoroughly, just as we delight to watch what will spring out every season and where one’s favorite flower will show itself this year.

Every year added to our age is something we need to celebrate. It always brings with it something new, something different. It expands our awareness of our being and how wonderfully made we are.

Today, for example, I found out I can move my left chest and right chest, my left hip, and my right hip, and as I breathe into them, I give them more energy. I am discovering more of my body as it calls my attention with its aches and pains.

Being old is not that bad. At times, we only focus on the deterioration of our bodies. We miss listening to the wisdom our bodies have learned in all its years of existence.

As I walk through the woods and look up at the trees, I see the new leaves sprouted. I thought to myself, and they’re all new. I thought of how they proudly displayed their beautiful colors in the Fall, and off they went when the winds blew.

As we age, we think of our prime days when we were vigorous, highly productive, and recognized. When we retire, we look with envy at the accomplishments of the younger ones and sometimes put them down. We talk of the good old days, much better than they have now.

Is this what we have learned from those many years? Is this what we can offer the younger generation? There must be a wiser way.

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Do Something WOW at Retirement

Retirement

Seniors, what is that WOW you so desire? This is your chance at living it. Some of us may think this WOW is beyond our means. Maybe it is. But this is the challenge, and having one at retirement makes life more exciting. 

We are now retired for 20 years the joy of early retirement) and each year is an adventure. Some are fun and easy and smooth sailing. Others are more challenging, but all these contribute to what retirement is all about.

Before we retired, we struggled about what we will do. We had options laid out. We were clear about what we did not want, but we had no clue about what we wanted to do.

I remember our many walks on Siesta Key Beach in Florida, talking endlessly about what we wanted to do. Each of us is often left with thoughts on the implications of these possibilities.

We were concerned. We were uncertain. We were afraid of what the future held for us. We were afraid of where our dreams would bring us or how the dream of one of us would affect our lives. We hesitated to think as we did not want so many changes to our already happy existence.

But we knew that we could not just sit and watch endless streams of movies on television. We had to explore opportunities out there. We were still too young not to be engaged.

Once we started, we just kept going. We used our experience to create our consulting and did this for 20 years. We cannot even tell you how much we enjoyed it. Until now, we have friends and colleagues with whom we worked and shared life.

We would take contracts only scheduled for the winter months, which we wanted to avoid in Canada. Summer months were reserved for family. Our families lived in different parts of the world, so Summer became our particular time with each other.

Enough of my own experience. Now, back to you.

What image comes to you when retirement looms on your horizon? The end of fun? A quiet life? A trip somewhere? A life with family? Live your dream?

Most of us think of that day when we can do what we like. Often, we associate this with retirement. But I tell you honestly, many of us now retired sometimes feel that we still cannot do this. 

Yes, we find that our days are spent in countless little errands that by the time the day is over, there is no more time to do what we like other than stretch out and have that glass of wine. Does this count? Most of our friends will say yes. 

Of course, it depends on your own goal.

Many retirees enjoy doing little errands and taking care of grandchildren. Full-time grandmas fill up their time, and this is their life. 

I know many of my friends do this, and they enjoy it. They accompany their grandchildren to their swimming practice and piano lessons or bring them to school. It depends on what you want to do. 

My husband is not the only one. We just worked with someone who is 73 years old and already had three heart attacks. He loves to collect rare ceramics in blue, and he works to be able to buy the more expensive ones, which may overstretch his retirement pension.

Younger people now work harder and smarter to reach a much younger age to retire and live the lifestyle they want. Others declare early retirement and live it NOW.

The style you choose to live your retirement depends on you. Many people now retire early. Once they have achieved their commitment and goals, they’re gone. But many continue to get engaged. My husband retired when he was 53.

He was one of those lucky ones to have that freedom at such a young age, but he continued working until he passed on at 75. This time, he was doing what he liked. He was no longer responsible for an organization, so the stress was less, and he enjoyed what he was doing.

How will you live your retirement?

The quality of your retirement will largely depend on the plan you have laid out, not when you’re about to retire but early in your life. 

There are retirement concerns you can plan for, but you will only discover others when you are retired. But planning for the ones you know will help you deal with those concerns that you only find out as you live your retirement.

The good news is you have more wisdom to deal with these challenges, so look forward to these as opportunities to expand your life. Having these challenges may still be the best thing to ever happen to you.

7 Reasons to Celebrate Ageing

Celebrating Ageing
Celebrating Ageing in a Song

Ageing with anger is a specialty of Irish poets, American novelists and, ah, maybe, Indian pilots. For the rest of us, ageing can be an absolute joy.


If we’re fortunate, a sense of grace falls over us. Although enigmatic smiles sometimes betray indigestion or even secret flatulence, they can also suggest that we’ve come to terms with our lives, that we can live with our histories, that we’re not competitive in our legacies and that the world is not only the place to be but by far the best.


Money could be a part of this, but looking at poor villagers in any Asian country, the smile of peace is there; the sense of being a part of a family’s history and its endless future has brought watchful contentment. 


Here are a few key reasons that ageing can be a blessing:


1. We enjoy life

Laughing at our own and others’ foibles leads to curious glances from others, but it can make an average day a good one.

My friend recently told me that sometimes, while doing something as ordinary as cleaning her house, she stops and enjoys feeling really happy. We seldom felt this before, if we ever did. We were so busy with living that we did not have time to pause and feel our joy.

But now, we have the time to savour whatever we feel; better still, whatever we think, they no longer threaten us. Life has taught us that nothing stays. The next moment, it’s going to be different. Everything turns for the good.

2. We celebrate what we have 

We climbed the mountains; we poked around in a few depths, and we can now relax and stop wrestling with missed promises.

We have nothing to prove. We’ve gone beyond that. You have not grown if you are still trying to outdo your friends. By this time, your friends know you well and accept you as you are, so relax and get yourself and enjoy life by just being you.

Some in our circle of Seniors have not yet reached this moment of self-acceptance. They still try to prove they are somebody, so they get stressed over little things that do not support their image of themselves. They do everything to prove they are better than anyone else and pressure their kids to enhance their image. But because we really can’t control circumstances and people like our kids, we get frustrated and eventually depressed.

With depression comes poor health and sickness. It’s our way of manipulating people and events. Our Senior years must not be like this. It must be enjoyed and lived joyfully. Let the cares and concerns of our earlier lives go and embrace what is, enjoy it and cherish whatever you have.

Nothing like the breath of life felt every morning could compare to all these concerns. Enjoy every day. Remember, we have a limited supply of these, so enjoy every moment.

3. We accept our shortcomings

In our 40s and 50s, mirrors are a tragedy. As we age and gently become self-caricatures, not just physically but emotionally, our weaknesses fit nicely with what we’ve become.

No longer do we have shortcomings. We realize that shortcomings are part of life and will always be there. We know this from experience, so we can now laugh when we look at them. We can’t deny the aching body, the stooping posture, the wrinkled face, the constant reminder of arthritis, and the blurred vision. We do something about them, but we don’t let these stop us from enjoying our lives.

Yes, what we have become is what we celebrate in our Senior years. When we look at each of us, we can observe so many things in our last 60, 70, 80 or 90 years of life. Just as we have reached this age alive, we should be happy. This, alone, is reason to celebrate.

4. We have clearer priorities mainly because we don’t have so many of them. 

We have time and space to focus on what is essential, whether learning family or sports nostalgia or the craziness of politics. We can pick our spots. Besides, age has made us realize that only a few things matter. The many things we pursued when we were younger no longer have the same intensity in our Senior years.

5. We accept our grumpiness and go and hide when we feel it coming on. 

The random savaging of children, grandchildren and trim adherents is at last controlled.

Age has taught us that most things can be managed. Also, we have less stress, so very few things worry us. We have reached an age when we know we can no longer do much, so we let go.

6. We embrace everything that we are

More searching for who we are? We’ve stopped that. We have accepted who we are, knowing it or not.

I remember the angst of my younger years when we were driven by learning what careers fit us, what I do with my life, how I could improve myself, what job would be fun for me and many more. Now, I laugh at the fact that I still don’t really know myself at my age and will never fully know as it reveals more each time I think I have a handle on what I am.

7. Most importantly, we can reflect on our lives and the ages we’ve lived through.

Even if our own story is not filled with drama, the headlines, achievements, and tragedies of the world that have been our companion can consume hours of review and end with some tentative conclusions or insights that, if we’re cautious, we can sell to the young as wisdom.


So, ageing is not the only thing we have ahead of us. It may also be the best time of your life.