Big Bird is a gift for all ages, and a symbol of age esteem.  When our four year old granddaughter and I met him at Busch Gardens, Florida, we were both equally thrilled.  - And we both wanted our photo with her!*

When I met her I said, “Oh, Big Bird, you have been my idol forever!”, later to discover that she was created in 1969.  She represents the  generation between our granddaughter and me.  So this is truly an intergenerational photo.

Big Bird is definitely a friend of AgeEsteem® and a gift for all ages.

• Big Bird makes you laugh, without even speaking.
• All generations love him.
• His goal is to help people learn, especially children.
• He is a role model as a good friend to the other Muppets.
• He reminds us of the importance of play and having fun, at every age.

]]> http://www.ageesteem.com/2012/01/21/a-gift-for-all-ages/feed/ 0 http://www.ageesteem.com/2011/08/30/what-is-ageesteem-interview/ http://www.ageesteem.com/2011/08/30/what-is-ageesteem-interview/#comments Tue, 30 Aug 2011 04:02:11 +0000 Bonnie http://almania.tchmachines.com/~gwfrvzlm/?p=2339

Simona Ferrar, 36, Spain

Age Esteem is self esteem related to age.  It means feeling good about yourself and feeling good about your age and the stage of life you’re in.

I think one of the main fears in my case is that I am 36 years old and I don’t have children yet, so that is my main worry concerning aging.  If one day I don’t have children I won’t be able to have them anymore.  So I think that is the most important one.  I am at the stage in life where that could or could not happen.   That is going to influence my life in a big way.  Otherwise I do see and feel my body change.  I see wrinkles and grey hair which I didn’t have before.  They just keep appearing more and more.  I’m kind of trying to figure out how to deal with them.  I’d like to say that they don’t bother me, but at the same time I feel they are new and I need to get used to them.

Since I also work in acting, appearance is quite important and is very much taken into consideration when people choose you for a job .  For example I did an audition for a role and I sort of suspected that they were looking for someone who was quite a bit younger; it was for television and for television they quite like to have someone with very young looks. They didn’t take me for that role, but then they called me for another role which I did get and am happy to have it, but I also realized it was a role of someone older who had a daughter of 20.  So I started calculating and realized I could be a grandmother already at this age.

Yes, I think that I am in a phase of figuring out how I want to deal with these issues.  A lot of actors and actresses do face surgery for this reason.  It is something I don’t really want to do now, or later, but it is something one thinks of and hears about in these professions.

In dancing there’s a tendency to say that you can’t dance after a certain age.  It is certainly true of ballet where it becomes very difficult to find a job after 35 or 40 years of age.  However, I believe that most dancers are able to dance after that age.  Someone just decided at some time that that age is no longer good for dancing.  Wonderful proof that this is not true is Sylvie Guillem who is still a ballet star at 46.  I’m not in ballet right now, and I also started dancing relatively late compared to standards.  At the same time I feel that dancing is something that I should be able to do as long as I want.  That’s exactly what I’m going to be doing, so I am organizing my life and my way of working in function of that.  That is why I am working on creations, because I know people won’t come and say you can’t create any more.  If you create your own work, then you get your job easily.  I think people are dancing to a later age.  One of my favorite choreographers is a person called Pina Bausch who passed away last year.  She’s a very well-known dancer in contemporary dance.  She’s a director of dance theater.  She’s German.  She died at the age of 68 and I saw her dance a few months before she died.  It was beautiful to see her dance.  She has people in her company who are past the age when one says they should start thinking of doing other things.  She actually did a big choreography of a 3 hour performance with people over 65 years old.  It was beautiful.  I loved it.  I think these things are happening more and more.  By the time I am 65 or 70, I think I will have a lot of co dancers that age.

Simona’s Tips: Aging comes with a lot of good things such as lots of experience, one’s own experience and the experience of others around one.  I feel I’ve learned so much.  The older I get the more I know and I get to know myself better.  I think there are a lot of people older than me around me, people in my family and other people I really look up to as being models for me.  I just feel their experience is so valuable, or just their being there for me is something very valuable.  I had and have such nice relationships with my grandmother on my mother’s side and with my grandmother and grandfather on my father’s side.  For example with my grandfather we had quite a formal relationship up until very recent years when we got really close.  For me these are special relationships which involve caring and just being with each other.  I really value these people and I think that society should.

Love your body and enjoy it.  Don’t let yourself think that you cannot do something because you are too old or too young.  If it feels right for you, then it is probably your right time.  The body is what one leaves when one dies so I think we have to enjoy it as much as possible.  That’s why I enjoy dancing so much.  It is a wonderful way of experiencing one’s body and expressing feelings.  There is a lot of humor in dance, too.  Enjoy your body.  What I see in people when someone’s happy is that  they are beautiful, whatever the age.  I know children are drawn to happy people. – And it doesn’t depend on age.  So yes, just enjoy yourself and your body and feelings and soul and the relationship with others through soul and body.

Simona Ferrar is an actress, dancer and choreographer.

Bonnie Fatio

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY !

Today Age Esteem celebrates each of you. – Mothers, aunts, Godmothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, sisters and friends.

We are thankful that you have nurtured, loved, guided, prodded, mentored, and led another to grow into a better person and to become independent and capable of loving and nurturing others.

Being a mother or a mother figure in the life of another person is one of the most precious roles life offers.

I am forever grateful for the women, known and unknown, who have grown me into the woman I am and continue to accompany me on my journey.

Thank You!

Bonnie Fatio

Who are these two people?  What were their life journeys like?  Where did they come from?  How did their lives evolve?

No matter who they were, our lives are somehow interrelated.  Their lives, like ours, represent lessons learned, events experienced, roads traveled and relationships built. – All of this was part of their own age esteem; it is part of the legacy of life’s lessons that they passed on to others.

In AgeEsteem: Growing A Positive Attitude Toward Aging I share a chapter “My Legacy of Wisdom” which suggests how you might leave your own Legacy of Life’s Lessons.  Why not begin doing this now?  Then when future generations look at your picture, they will know the answers to the questions we asked about the couple pictured above.

• What are some of the lessons that you have learned through experience?  For examples see “Put More Energy Into Your Age Esteem“.
• Keep a diary of these lessons as they come to mind.
• Rewrite these lessons to share with others.  You may wish to make a book of these lessons, design them into a collage, or put them into the form of a will.

Being able to use the past with its experience of living is a gift I have to share. -  Bonnie Fatio

]]> http://www.ageesteem.com/2011/05/07/age-esteem-sharing-your-legacy-of-lifes-lessons/feed/ 0 http://www.ageesteem.com/2011/05/04/share-your-age-esteem-share-your-story/ http://www.ageesteem.com/2011/05/04/share-your-age-esteem-share-your-story/#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 04:01:59 +0000 Bonnie http://almania.tchmachines.com/~gwfrvzlm/?p=2261 Amy Balderson and Bonnie Fatio

Filming for Legacy®

Your life story is an  important dimension of your age esteem.  Have you shared with others of all ages your values, experiences and lessons learned?  No two people live the same experience even though they may live the same event at the same moment.   This is why it is important to write your memoirs or record your story on audio or visual, or all three!  Each of us has a unique journey to share.

For a special project for Legacy® in Versoix, Switzerland I was asked if I would take part in filming that project.  Since I have donated my own story to Legacy®, I know the organization well and was pleased to accept.

Legacy® records and collects in-depth audiovisual interviews of the life stories of people who shape our world in order to preserve them for future generations. I believe strongly in the importance of capturing the stories of personalities alive today and to make these stories accessible to those who will never have an opportunity to meet them in person.   They become our virtual mentors.

Perhaps you will be contacted in the future to donate the story of your journey.  When this happens, I hope you will respond with a resounding age esteem, “Yes”.

P.S. Here are some extraordinary photos of Versoix where Legacy has its headquarters.

Bonnie Fatio

When is the last time you spent 12 hours non-stop and still had energy to spare?  Yesterday?  Ten years ago?

Our age esteem soars when we are full of energy and vitality.   We feel good about ourselves when our energy seems boundless.  We are happier and healthier.

On my hour drive home from playing with my two little granddaughters ages 2 and 4 for ten hours – after my early morning drive to their home – I was still bubbling with energy.  I felt exuberant.

Why would I feel energized after such a long day?  One reason is that I did not babysit.  Instead, I played!   We spent the whole day having fun, doing what we enjoyed.  It was a powerful lesson on how to put more energy into your age esteem.

• Build into your day activities that you enjoy.  Roll in the grass.
• Find ways to make activities that you must do enjoyable.   Sing to your spinach.
• Change activities when your attention span tires and move onto something else.  Make cookies and then paint or draw.
• Move and use all parts of your body.  Dance with abandon.
• Create a balance between quiet activities and active ones.  Read a book and then play tag.
• Take a break in your day to nap or meditate.  Go to sleep after lunch.
• Drink often and have a small snack in the morning and again in the afternoon.
• Laugh with abandon.
• Hug others as often as possible.  This includes animals and stuffed toys.

If you practice the above you will put more energy into your age esteem and feel happier and healthier.  Enjoy!

Bonnie Fatio

2012 will be the European Year for Active Aging and Solidarity between Generations.

Solidarity between generations, people of different generations working together,  is essential for our world to function.  Many of the AgeEsteem workshops that I give are around an intergenerational theme and the importance of the complementarity that people of different ages and stages in life offer each other.

It is natural to want to be with others of diverse ages and to have solidarity between generations.  If we look at the family unit we see two, three and even four generations.  It is natural to interact daily with people of other generations, be they younger or older.

• Do you have regular contact with your parents, grandparents, children or grandchildren?
• What contact do you have with younger and older people?
• What benefit do these people bring to your life – and you to theirs?
• Is there a feeling of solidarity between generations where you live and work?
• If you lack contact with other generations, what can you do to remedy this?

People with age esteem tend to be active with positive people of all ages, creating solidarity between generations.

Bonnie Fatio

Imagine 700 women coordinating their drumming beats for harmonious rhythm and you have an idea of the power of women of all ages working together towards one common goal.  – Moving to the same beat.

This was an exercise in the closing ceremony of the 2010 WIN Conference in Paris, where I was honored to speak.  Sewa Beats brought in 700 African drums and coordinated the movement and sounds, unifying us in a unique and powerful experience.  Each of us contributed to the amazing sound.  Age, physical appearance, mobility, intelligence, previous musical experience, profession and ethnic background were not factors in our success.  It was the movement of working together to the same beat!  And we did it with laughter and energy!

Drumming provided a wonderful example of intergenerational collaboration, and an exercise in age esteem.  There are times when we bring unique talents, experience and point of view to a new activity and group of people because of our age.  We bring our uniqueness to complement the uniqueness of others.  There are other moments, such as the drumming, when the intergenerational aspect is one of  blending and equalizing.  We each bring our unique gifts and experience but it is used to make a common sound and to move to the same beat for the desired result.  Age esteem helps us have confidence to know when to complement and when to blend.

Bonnie Fatio

]]> http://www.ageesteem.com/2011/04/02/moving-to-the-same-beat/feed/ 0 http://www.ageesteem.com/2011/03/08/happy-international-womens-day/ http://www.ageesteem.com/2011/03/08/happy-international-womens-day/#comments Tue, 08 Mar 2011 04:01:17 +0000 Bonnie http://almania.tchmachines.com/~gwfrvzlm/?p=2182

Today you are honored as a woman!  This is the 100th anniversary of the first International Women’s Day, a perfect opportunity to honor women and girls of all ages.

This is a day to celebrate womanhood, sisterhood, and friendships.  It is a day to pay tribute to those who have gone before us and have helped pave the way, rejoice in those who are near to us and encourage the women and girls who follow.

In a recent speech, First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama said  “We should always have three friends in our lives – one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way. “   This is what International Women’s Day is all about.

Happy 100th International Women’s Day!

Bonnie Fatio