Aging Does Have Its Benefits

Baby boomers are learning that growing older is far better than we expected. We are not aging the same way our parents and grandparents did and our quality of life is in many ways the best ever. Always resistive, always resistant, and always resilient, we are thriving on many levels. Turns out, you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

There is a lot of credit we could give for the fact that we are (for the most part) living better lives “at this age” then our parents did. First of all, healthcare has been finding new solutions to old problems every day and we have that huge advantage. Far more focus has been placed on preventive medicine and so we are monitoring our health more closely with great benefits. Finding and diagnosing problems early makes them far more manageable.

Most of us are not sure how we got to be this old so quickly, but we did. Our viewpoint of aging has changed significantly, and we are not aging the same way our parents and grandparents did. We are doing it with fervor and some defiance, a good quality that has always defined us.

Getting older has caused us to come to understand that we have some options we never had before. We don"t have to get up and go to work. We don"t really have to do much that we don"t want to. Our intentional focus on fitness and health has kept many of us healthy and active well into our senior years. We earned this.

One of the benefits of healthy aging is the understanding that we have far more control than generations before us. Though sometimes life gives us unexpected things, we have a great deal of control. We can control our diet. We control our exercise and our choices.

Aging is viewed very differently by people. Some hate it, others embrace it and yet some just accept it as fact. One of the issues of aging is the level of our fitness and stability. In the current generation, aging looks different. Let’s look at some ways to stay fit as baby boomers.

• You are strong You have control over your food intake and exercise patterns. You have taken responsibility for all of that and have learned that you can take care of yourself. Diet and even moderate exercise matter a great deal in growing old. Even slow movement brings many positive issues with it as you age. Find activities that you enjoy and go with it whether it be bowling, swimming, or walking. Find friends to do it with you and just MOVE. Or better yet, dance. You can do that at home in a bathrobe.
• There are many wonderful options out there for getting involved. Research suggests that staying connected is a huge factor in aging well. Find activities that you like and then find centers that offer those activities. In some cases, that is much easier said than done especially after a significant loss. Senior Centers, libraries, and volunteering are all ways to stay connected. It helps make life better.
• Have fun. Staying healthy as a senior suggests that you have to find activities you enjoy and then do them. Call a friend and go for a hike, join a class, volunteer for a local event, the goal is to get out.
• As you age, you tend to do the same things over and over, that’s why finding new things to do is good for you. Easier said than done but you can decide that today " I am going to do something different". Life becomes different and joyous.

Growing older is an experience none of us prepared for. But for Boomers, it"s not so bad in fact, for many of us it"s a time to find ourselves again so get out there and enjoy!