by Nancy Merz Nordstrom

Here are just a few of the miscellaneous new programs and initiatives being developed around the country, all of which will help continue your lifelong learning quest in those “After-50” years .  Thanks to Civic Ventures Blueprint for the Next Chapter for this list. 

The Senior Companion Program is part of Senior Corps, a network of national service programs that provides older Americans with the opportunity to apply their life experiences to meeting community needs. Senior Companions serve one-on-one with the frail elderly and other homebound persons who have difficulty completing everyday tasks. 

The Third Age Initiative of Leadership Greater Hartford provides leadership training for older adults and helps connect them with leadership roles in the community. 

The Discovering What’s Next program in Newton, Massachusetts partners with the Newton Community Education program to offer deeper exploration of topics touched on in library forums. A two-part seminar, Life Planning for Couples in the Second Half of Life identified major lifestyle changes couples face and engaged participants in a process of exploration and conversation about their implications for their relationships. 

The Transition Talks, Discovering What’s Next: Re-Vitalizing Retirement workshops and forums in Newton, Massachusetts were extremely popular and participants expressed a desire to continue meeting in smaller groups. As a result, Transition Talks was developed – informal drop-in conversation groups held at local Starbucks stores and the public library for discussions about topics related to retirement and aging. 

Cleveland’s OASIS Without Walls program conducted focus groups of baby boomers in their effort to attract younger members. Their responses led program planners to offer a series of courses related to spirituality and inner explorations including, Inner Peace by Meditation, the Seven Chakras, Peaceful Practices, and Sage-ing Circles. 

LifeLearn Program at the Goodrich-Gannett Neighborhood Center offers computer classes and incorporates computer and technology features into lifelong learning programs. Older adult participants are able to apply and advance their computer skills to specific topics they explored in classes or discussions. 

The Seniors Connect@Cleveland Pubic Library initiative is sponsoring Senior Health and Legal Information Fairs as part of its overall program to promote health and wellness. Libraries across the country are becoming key gateways to health information and offering programs on health and wellness for active adults. 

I've presented just some of the many innovative and exciting ideas being developed with the goal to keep older adults active, engaged and contributing members of society. All of these ideas have a Lifelong Learning component, a valuable ingredient needed to reach that goal.  

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Nancy Nordstrom is the author of, “Learning Later, Living Greater. ”She also directs the Elderhostel Institute Network, North America's largest educational network for older adults. She offers counseling to new programs, and provides resources and facilitates communication among 400 lifelong learning programs across the U.S. and Canada.

by Pat Sullivan

Many people find it easier to meditate while walking than sitting. Because walking meditations involve the body, they naturally enliven the spirit. Walking deepens the breath. Feelings that are normally repressed can burst into awareness. Each footstep grounds you a bit more into your real self and connects you a little more with the world around you.

Being conscious makes you more focused and less stressed, which makes it easier to sort out what's essential from what's not. One easy way to begin walking meditation is to start with a theme, like gratefulness or a blessing. As you walk, notice what draws your attention.

It might be an unusual door or a child's abandoned sand bucket. Then let your imagination speak. Do you need to protect yourself by literally closing the door to an unhealthy relationship or make a more hospitable opening where a healthier relationship can grow?

Does the sand bucket remind you how you feel abandoned and unappreciated? Or are you treating this other person as carelessly as an unknown child has treated a toy?

Would doing something simple in a neutral setting (like walking on the beach) help heal this relationship? A variation is to carry a stone on your walk. Reflect on your case against the other person, and let your negative feelings or pain flow into the stone. When you're ready, place the stone lovingly in the earth as a sign of forgiveness, hope, and "letting go, letting God." Then walk deliberately toward a healthier relationship.

by Suzanne Leigh

Skeptical  about the power of pets on stress? Just check in with some New York stockbrokers.

Take 48 frazzled midlife New York stockbrokers whose high blood pressure is being successfully controlled with medication.

Now throw them in a stressful situation like the current stock market and have them perform complex math and verbal skills' tests and watch what happens to their blood pressure.

In a study by researchers at the University of Buffalo, N.Y., half of these men and women experienced a steep rise in blood pressure. Despite ongoing treatment, their levels rose above normal. The other 24 experienced only modest increases that fell within the normal limits.

What made the difference? The answer, in this case, might lie in the pitter-patter of little, and not so little, paws. All 48 lived alone, earned more than $200,000 per year and had no other medical condition. The 24 who fared better under stress had acquired a cat or dog in the six months before starting treatment.

Doctors have long suspected that pet ownership benefits the mental and physical health of the elderly and fragile. Now it seems having a feline or canine companion can benefit younger, healthier people, too.

"The study shows that if you have high blood pressure, a pet is very good for you when you're under stress, especially if you have a limited support system," said lead researcher Karen Allen, a professor of medicine.

In previous studies, Allen had shown that a loved pet exerts a calming influence on blood pressure and heart rate when the owner is performing tasks designed to induce mental and physical stress. Her research also suggests that pet ownership can substitute for human companionship and provide physiological benefits similar to that of two-legged friends. 

To all the men who secretly want to be a better lover, Bernie Zilbergeld's got one thing to say: Be less manly. Zilbergeld, author of The New Sexuality: The Truth About Men, Sex and Pleasure, suggests that men get in touch with their feminine side in the following nine ways:

1. Listen and share. When you listen, open up and communicate, you feel more comfortable and relaxed; two essential ingredients for great sex.

2. Lose the macho routine. Don't buy into the concept of performance-on-demand. You don't always have to be in the mood.

3. Ask and learn. Don't assume that you know what she wants. Ask her and you might enjoy a pleasant surprise.

4. Get close out of the bedroom. Explore non-sexual ways of getting to know your partner better as a path to closeness and trust.

5. Give hugs and kisses. Sex isn't just about intercourse. Find numerous expressions of affection, including holding hands, cuddling, hugging and kissing.

6. Don't have sex. Dispense with the notion that all physical contact must lead to sex. A little abstinence makes the heart grow fonder.

7. Be attentive. Make eye contact and really listen to your partner in and out of the bedroom. Take your partner's feelings, ideas and opinions seriously.

8. Legitimize crying. Real men have emotions. Don't be afraid to share yours with your partner.

9. Don't wimp out. Share your emotions but don't become a basket case. Balancing sensitivity with assertiveness is everything.

Photographer: Galina Barskaya

The day begins before you are ready.  The baby kept you up all night or a child needing help with homework meant you went to bed later than usual.   Everyone was disorganized and the harder you tried to organize them and yourself, the worse things got.

Now you are at work, tired and crabby.  It’s going to be a long day.  A nap would be the perfect solution, but the boss wouldn’t like it very much.

Here are three things you can do to refresh yourself, have a better day and not upset the boss. When your eyes are tired, it affects the rest of your body, and your attitude.  Take a few moments and do the following.

1. Rub your hands together until warm. Then place the heels of your hands over your closed eyes.  Let the warmth and darkness relax you.  You may want to do this a couple of times during the day.
2. When stressed , breathing tends to be shallow.  You can do this next exercise alone or while your hands are covering your eyes.  Take ten slow deep breaths, in and out through your nose.  Concentrate on your breath, shutting out all thoughts and cares for the day.  Even though this takes but a few moments, it can realign your attitude.
3. The third thing you can do is take a walk on your break.  If the weather permits, go outside!  If not, even walking around the office gives you a different view and gets your blood flowing. Try it, if this works for you great! If not, modify it in a way that gives you and your day a lift.

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Laura Ries

primaryparentingonpurpose.com

by Paul Wolf

In his classic self-help book, Handbook to Higher Consciousness, Ken Keyes Jr. says the reality for everyone who walks this earth is, "You win some; you lose some."

Confidence isn't about expecting to win always. That's unrealistic. Confidence is a blending of optimism, hopefulness, self-reliance and freedom from inhibition.

Here are nine ways to build confidence:

1. Create a positive attitude. Optimism breeds confidence. Start thinking positively, and eventually you will act more confidently.

2. Set specific goals. It's hard to go after what you want if you haven't defined your goals. Write them down,  the more detailed description, the better.

3. Rehearse."The pianist doesn't play on inspiration alone," says self-esteem guru Jerry Minchinton. Anyone who has doubts about doing something right can benefit from rehearsals.

4. Act confidently (no matter how you feel). Pessimists are passive instead of active, which creates a vicious circle in which lack of achievement and low self-esteem reinforce each other, writes Bob Arnot, M.D., in The Biology of Success.

5. Take risks. The inability to act comes from an insistence on certainty, says cognitive therapist Michael Edelstein. Remember, the world offers no guarantees.

6. Give in to periodic struggles. What's effortless doesn't build confidence.

7. Review successes and failures. It's obvious that yesterday's successes are worth studying, but our failures are often more instructive.

8. Accept others. By recognizing we are all only human, it becomes easier to take risks.

9. Remember what's important. When Isaac Stern took his violin on stage, he could have thought, "I am getting a little too round in the middle." But you can bet the classical music legend's main thoughts were on the eternal beauty of Mozart. When you feel a lack of confidence, remember this: The mission is always more important than the man.

by Dr. Christina Winsey-Rudd

The distinction between weight loss and choosing a healthy lifestyle makes all the difference in continuing to lose weight. What would it take for you or let's say fictitious "Jane" to lose weight and keept it off.

“Jane” has been on her “diet” for a little more than two weeks, but even with a reduction of 4 pounds her resolve is fading.  “What happened?” she thinks to herself.  “I was so excited about reaching my goal.”

If you feel like Jane does, let’s look at the difference between a resolution and a decision: First, let’s discuss a resolution.  According to Wikipedia, “A New Year's resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. “To think about “Resolution” – to “resolve” something is almost that you are “solving” it – i.e., putting it to rest such that it doesn’t upset our proverbial applecarts again. Inevitably, the challenge with this is that the human mind seems to think that a resolution is a sort of “magic bullet;” that just because he or she has made a resolution that this time it is going to be done.  But inevitably, when faced with the challenge of cravings, temptations and the like, the resolve gets thrown out the window with promises of coming back to it when it will be “easier.”

The very nature of change involves the need to overcome obstacles,but when making a resolution most people do not have a good plan for how they will deal with obstacles.  They rely on their resolution to be enough, when, in fact, it isn’t. 

Pre-planning, and having, in effect, a “toolbox” of solutions for dealing with and overcoming obstacles is key. Now let’s look at a decision.  According to Wikipedia,“Decision making can be regarded as an outcome of mental processes (cognitive processes) leading to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice.”

Why is this important?  If you have made a decision to get healthy and reduce your weight then for starters you are not merely resolving to “starting a diet”.  You are actually choosing to live a healthy lifestyle continuously from then on.  There is a distinct difference.   

You see, it is precisely because temptations and obstacles come upon you that you are going to have to decide over and over and over.  In fact, the challenge never gets completely resolved in that you will be eating for life.  Therefore, you will have to make a decision over and over again to eat the right things for your body for your entire life! For many people that seems far too big – it is as you are going to have to climb Mount Everest, but only because of a habit that can be changed.  Once you have really changed habits consistently the decision does become easier.

I tell my private coaching clients when they come to me that up until now they have been used to eating healthy maybe two out of 7 days.  We are going to look for a progression.  In the weight-loss phase our goal is to follow a food plan 7 out of 7 days in order to achieve the healthy weight they want to be.  But then, for maintenance, if they are living a healthy lifestyle at least 5 or 6 days out of 7 they will stay slender and healthy for a lifetime.To do that takes patience.  There is no magic bullet.  The “magic” is in the decision you make, and re-make again and again and again.  The “magic” is knowing what diversions, tactics and tools you will use to overcome temptation and obstacles before you encounter them.

So what will you decide?

Dr. Christina Winsey-Rudd, The "I Can" Doctor

The future you want to create is being built in every now moment and decision you make.   That means you may slip up or eat too much at one meal, and can make a new decision in the very next moment. Stop in the middle of that piece of pie?  Throw away that extra pint of ice cream?  You MUST be kidding!

Well, no I’m not.  I am absolutely not saying it’s easy.  What I’m saying is, you can gain more control and make better choices and that each time you do it becomes easier to make those healthy choices again and again.

Food addiction is different from alcohol and drugs.  We have to eat to live, but we don’t have to drug to live.  The challenge to keeping food within a moderate amount on a continuum is truly a different ballgame because food of all kinds is all around us.

Let’s see how to make it a little easier on yourself.  Make it a point to eliminate the “whites” in your daily fare.  What are they?  White, processed sugar and white flour are actually quite addictive in their nature.  They cause you to crave more of the same and there actually are some withdrawal-type symptoms when removing white sugar and white flour from the diet.  However, when that’s achieved it is a very very big step towards greater control.  Then it is easier and easier to make continually better choices and, to jump “back on the horse after falling” as quickly as possible.

Here are some ideas that will assist you with removing the “whites” from your diet:

1.       Look for powdered stevia root, or blue agave syrup as they are low glycemic and will satisfy the need for sweet without jolting your nervous system.

2.       Look for whole grain alternatives to the white, processed flour products.  If it says “white, bleached, enriched flour” you know that isn’t the product for you.

3.       Add back fruits fresh and whole into your daily fare.  Dried fruit are high in sugar content and high glycemic, but in a pinch, if it’s a choice between a commercial chocolate bar and dried fruit, pick the dried fruit (NOT the chocolate-covered or candied kind).

4.       Then check out an amazing little mind-body technique with a BIG result of stopping cravings and overeating in its tracks. 

5.       Analyze if your desire for sweets is linked with some sort of stress you aren’t handling.

When you give up the “whites,” you will find that fruit and other things begin to taste very sweet and they satisfy.  A pie made with whole grain crust (or even better, ground almond flour crust) and simple fruit – no sugar added filling – will taste delicious,  satisfying, be far better for your lifestyle eating plan and you WILL be able to stop!

Dr. Christina Winsey-Rudd

TheICanDoctor.com

Your brain is like a muscle that needs exercise. You can make yourself smarter by increasing neural connections through novelty and stimulation.

1. Read a daily newspaper, literary classics and the Web.
You grow smarter by reflecting on issues, events and people and forming strong opinions.

2. Associate with smart people.
Engaging in conversation with a smart person is like playing tennis with a superior opponent.

3. Keep a journal.
Your insights and the connections you make about your past, present and future help to make neural connections.

4. Travel.
On the road, you're forced to solve ordinary problems (food, lodging, language), all of which have become automatic at home.

5. Memorize things.
Lawrence Katz, author of Keep Your Brain Alive, says memorizing people's names or other important bits of information is a great way to keep your brain fit.

6. Take up a musical instrument.
Learning to play the violin, for example, involves physical coordination (working the strings and bow), intellectual challenge (reading music), sensory experience (hearing pitch and harmony), and intuitive work (mastering tempo and rhythm).

7. Play games and pursue hobbies.
The philosopher Alan Watts used to praise the kind of learning that is effortless, such as the play we experienced as kids.

8. Create new routines constantly.
Katz notes that unchanging routines make us intellectually flabby.

9. Change jobs and positions periodically.
Remember when you were in school, learning something new every semester? Some jobs are like a 15-unit class that never ends.