Wellness News for Baby Boomers

Boomers Aging ... Feared or Embraced?
By Angelena Craig

Boomers, those in their 50’s and 60’s do not want to think about getting old, no way...and for good reasons. Aging has been thought of as synonymous with dread, disease, decline, disablement and finally death. But what if, instead of tip toeing into the elders years, looking over our shoulders to make sure no one has noticed, what if we could embrace one more developmental stage we, the living, all go through?

We can consider past revolutions in thought. Remember when child birth was considered a disease often requiring bed rest and confinement? We sure changed all that. Women, and not so long ago, took back their power to make decisions about how they will go through their pregnancy and the birthing processes. And the choices of how we do it are many.

When we moved into the next phase of development, bringing up our children, those practices have also shifted dramatically. “Positive Parenting,” how to bring up the kids in a good way is in the minds of most new parents. This is especially true for those who came up in families who may have provided sufficiently for the basic needs, but not offered emotional nurturance and support for individual differences. Other changes have included fathers becoming much more involved with their children, and children, as young as infants, going off to day care centers so that mothers can work outside of the home. The latest shifts have seen same sex parents widely becoming accepted, as normal.

So many changes...and now it is time to change our attitudes about aging into our elder years. As boomers, we thought we would never get old. But the evidence otherwise is starting to mount up.

Can we master aging?

We definitely can take more charge of our health, educating ourselves as to how to best nurture ourselves with food and supplements. We can find ways to recognize and then release the stress so that our minds are clearer and our bodies working optimally. We can find ways to exercise that work for us, so that we will want to build stretching and strengthening and aerobicizing into our daily routines. We can stay active and vital in our minds and bodies, if we choose to.

If that old adage, “attitude is everything” is true, then it behooves us to recognize that our societal preoccupation with youth and beauty is way out of balance and does not serve us. Appreciating and even revering the elders, as is done in many societies, can come to us as well, if we embrace this next phase of living and even make it a joyful conclusion to a life well lived.

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