When You can't change Reality, is changing your Reaction to it, REALLY making any difference?
So you're Losing sleep over concerns that your newly unemployed and recently divorced adult child has asked to move back into their old bedroom in your home, to both find their footing, find their authentic self AND, not tap into what savings they personally have left... And then you hear them say...
"Oh, and by the way Mom(Pop) I left my laundry (that smells of "skunk-smoke") on top of the washer, and what time are you making me Breakfast in the morning?!?"
We older-adults face different challenges than our Parents did and depression and anxiety rank high in modern medical concerns for Seniors (just watch TV ads on pharmaceuticals for proof) and yet, we can utilize mindfulness to improve our life in ways our Parents never knew about, even without improving "our life" details... And that's where we find the real power to change what we can; OURSELVES!
Retiring itself can be a different stressor than before.
With Aging ALWAYS comes the topic of "retirement", people ask me about it more and more (a 60 year old Personal Trainer seems to spark images of Lloyd Bridges on the Seinfeld show... Izzy Mandelbaum!)
But, I've heard It said that retirement kills more people than hard work. Well there are statistics showing that for people who retire too soon or when they were not expecting to that there are significant health concerns and the potential for premature medical emergencies up to and including, YES, Death.
I speak with so many people in gyms who are retired and you can just tell the difference between those who are or are at least appearing to be completely happy in that state of being, versus those who almost act as if they feel they should be happier or know that it would be great if they were happier being retired, but somehow, something seems, missing still.
So, whatever your life circumstances are that keep you restless at night; “Premature E-job-ulation” (aka jettisoned into Retirement), or Adult kids not acting very grown up, or the really serious and sincere problems like Illness, Finance or the loss of a loved one,
If you find yourself in these categories, might I suggest MINDFULNESS.
In my most recent book "got Parkinson's?... are you sure?" We cover the benefits and strategy of stress management and longevity through the peacefulness that comes from mindfulness, which is, I believe, best defined as "full and complete awareness of your current state and the current reality without any judgment of it being good or bad... It simply is judged as it is."
Now everybody may have a different way of experiencing mindfulness for some people it's something called autogenic training (covered in the "got Parkinson's?" Book) while for other people it's prayer, meditation, for some people just deep breathing for others honestly it could just be fishing... as I've always said "fishing is the one thing where doing absolutely nothing, is doing absolutely EVERYTHING you're supposed to."
The important thing here is to realize, to fully recognize and revolutionize the way you see being older maybe being retired, abd not just being old and tired. But, experiencing who you are, where you are, and what this "NEXT ACT" in life means without the weighted labels of right, wrong, good or bad, being carried around and getting in the way of you enjoying your life today.
For More information on mindfulness, yes you can check out my book "got Parkinson's? ... are you sure?!?"and believe it or not this book is more valuable to those who do not now and possibly never will have Parkinson's disease themselves... Believe it or not You're actually who I wrote it for.