In This Issue
The Library
Looking     Forward...

Something very important changes as people age.  It's not only appearance or changes in interests, it's something in the perception of time passing. Each passing day, week and month seems faster and shorter.  Awareness of time passing differently from earlier years in life is like a new reality.  It can be somewhat disconcerting, in fact, and people often ask relatives and friends to share this new sense of time experience.

Explanations of why our sense of time changes fall mainly in two areas of experience.  There are changes in biology and there are changes in psychology.  Changes in brain chemistry, in particular, may impact our sense of time.  These changes help make people more relaxed and easy-going so they don't notice the time as much as when they were ruled by time pressures.

Changes in the emotional aspects of day-to-day living also contribute to the changes in our sense of time and especially in timing.  There aren't for example as many things happening in families and communities that require scheduled participation.  People have to work at and commit to stay involved and active.  Time is spent by choice rather than due to the demands others make on us.

There is a great advantage hidden in the way our sense of time changes.  We might persuade ourselves that we have a new type of freedom available to us all the time.  Freedom from time pressure, freedom to make new choices as to how and with whom we spend our time, and last but not least, freedom to envision our futures by looking forward!



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Time to Talk and Listen is an Opportunity for Everyone!

     Having a good conversation is a  gift.  There are many reasons  for enjoyment but here are some other important outcomes.  In a real conversation you might find yourself saying things you didn't know you knew.  Or from another's words you might find thoughts or feeling or memories you thought you'd lost.  A good conversation brings both people to a new place.  And a conversation that sings stays indie for a time to be enjoyed again.

Link: http://winncollier.com/loneliness-and-the-art-of-conversation/


Being Ourselves

  Sound Mind in a Sound Body

Meditation calms nerves, relieves stress, improves focus, and extends lives by slowing aging.

Modern living overloads us! The result is stress.

Stress elevates the hormone cortisol which helps people cope with changes in the environment.  A steady stream of cortisol circulating with the blood in our bodies, however, is toxic.

It makes people eat too much and contributes to obesity.  It triggers insulin resistance which makes us sick.  It contributes to anxiety and depression.  It sabotages the enzyme, telomerace, which rebuilds our telomeres which are among the basic structures that keep us alive.

Banish stress for at least ten minutes a day!

Start with a two minute deep breathing exercise every day for one week.  Do it while walking if you are able.  Do it anyway even if you need to sit.

Increase your breathing time by two minutes a week for five weeks until you are able to breathe in this focused way for ten minutes each day.

Want an incentive?

****for every day you live, your life expectancy goes up another five hours - do the math!

****curious as it seems, the longer you live, the longer you can expect to live!


 
April 2015 Newsletter


Dear Members and Friends: 

     There must be hundreds of suggestions for successful aging.  It's a subject that fascinates me.  One set of tasks offered by Carl Jung, I believe, is compelling as well as thought provoking.

1. Aging well requires facing the reality of dying and the importance of aging as part of that journey.

2.  Conducting a life review is an essential part of aging.

3.  Defining life as both possibility and an understanding of limitations.

4.  Let go of rigid thoughts and feelings about yourself and see where you are and where you might go.

5.  Find a new rooting for your changing self.

6.  Determine the meaning of your life.

7.  Focus on rebirth; in other words die with life and liveliness.




Dr. Margaret Rappaport: at 6's & 7's!


Enjoying Life?

Many people aged sixty to eighty are choosing to continue working and postponing retirement as long as possible.  They now have some advice from two men from widely different cultures of work.  The advice is the same, however, "take a nap!"

Carlos Slim is a Mexican billionaire who frequently expresses his opinions about success and work.  He suggests that taking a nap allows him to work longer days but for three days a week instead of five.  This schedule allows for rest between work tasks on the work days and frees up the other days for good works, invention, or relaxation.

The chief of a government bureau in Seoul, South Korea urges workers to nap during work hours for 20 minutes to refresh and improve cognitive function.  The improvement in mood as well as perspective on work tasks results in greater productivity.

This advice is especially interesting to people who plan to stay at work as long as it make them feel good about what they do.  If napping is encouraged and acceptable it removes another barrier to keeping older workers in the workplace.
                    



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