Acknowledge your age.  Age is positive and natural.  We have been aging since the moment of birth. If we are breathing we are aging.   To age is to be alive.  Age is a gift, a gift that not everyone receives.  Rejoice and be glad that you are alive and aging.

Why should you acknowledge your age?  Why not just ignore it?  After all, today is just another day.

Is it?  You’ve experienced and learned every instant on your journey to reach the age you are now.  To look on today as just another day is ignore all you’ve gained by living.  It is to miss out on living this moment.  Today you are the youngest you will ever be.  To waste it is to miss out on the present.

Age esteemers acknowledge their age and focus on the advantages it brings.

Bonnie Fatio

Age Esteem begins when we are children.  Research at Yale University and the American Institute on Aging indicate that the attitude that we have towards age and older people as children influences how we ourselves age.  Children who are raised with a positive attitude and relationship towards older people age better and more healthfully and tend to live longer.

The relationships we have with older people, the language we hear others use to describe older people, and the images that we see illustrating older people will impact our whole life and even contribute to our longevity.

Age esteemers have a positive attitude toward aging.  They embrace it with age esteem.  Age esteemers value, admire and respect age and tend to live longer, happier lives.

Bonnie Fatio

Sunflowers are majestic.  They shine like a reflection of the sun.  And like people with age esteem, they become models for others.  They are looked up to as something of beauty and wonder.  They share many lessons with us.

• Keep your face to the sun.
• Stand tall.
• Share your pollen (wisdom, talents, skills)
• Continue to grow throughout life (learn and stretch your thinking).
• Shine forth with your inner beauty.

Bonnie Fatio

It always puts a smile on my face to see fields of sunflowers in bloom.  They have such a generous attitude.  The sunflower not only shares its beauty as it lifts its face to the sun as though laughing with joy.  – It also provides a landing field for all kinds of airborne insects from bumble bee to butter fly who in turn spread the flower’s pollen.

This is easily understood by people with age esteem.  Age-esteemers also have an attitude of generosity.

• They focus their thoughts on the sunshine, the positive.
• They shine with inner beauty.
• They share their joy of living, and
• They spread their pollen of wisdom.

Bonnie Fatio

The sunflower is beautiful! – Not because it is perfect, but because it shines with a natural beauty both in the sunshine and the shade.  In fact, the sunflower brightens any setting.  It raises its head with confidence and brings a happy glow to the world.

Age-esteemers bring their happy glow to the world as well, as they find ways to brighten the days of others.

Bonnie Fatio

Some people may say that the new 65 is the new 45.  It isn’t.  The new 65 is the NEW 65! – And this is just one glimpse of what it looks like.

Today’s 65ers are visiting new places, testing new limits, and living exciting adventures like my friend Evie shown here sliding in a Costan Rica rain forest.  Evie is also among those who are constantly seeking unique ways to contribute their talents to society and she volunteers her time in a local shelter.  – A 65er full of Age Esteem!

Bonnie Fatio

Friends at the 50th reunion reinforced studies I have read.  Those who were aging well were not necessarily the most physically fit and healthy.  Instead they were the ones with healthy attitudes.  Cancer, strokes, pain, paralysis and bankruptcy did not hold these healthy attitudes back.  Rather they were the ones we sought out first.  They exuded age esteem.

• We were drawn by their contagious laughter.
• They were genuinely interested in listening to the stories of others.
• They embraced the opportunity to play, to release their inner child.
• Their health was a minor event in their life story which was filled with family, friends,  accomplishments and contributions.
• They dwell on the positives of life.

Bonnie Fatio

Isabel Contreras, 57, Switzerland

What comes to mind when I hear Age Esteem is having self esteem so that when you age you will feel good about yourself.  Age Esteem is about having self esteem while aging.  I suppose that for me aging is once you reach 55 onwards.

Isabel’s Tips: Because I am very active in the work that I do, my own concern with aging is that I want to look relatively fresh.  I feel very young inside so therefore I would like to look very young on the outside – and I know and see that gravity is inevitable in aging.  Sometimes I’m concerned about that.

Positive thinking is key.  I maintain a positive attitude in everything I do.  I keep my dreams high, exercise,  read positive books, and avoid being with negative people.  I think that has been the most important thing.

I would say that to age well you need to enjoy every day of your life, to greet every morning with love in your heart, and to be grateful to be alive and to enjoy every day as a gift from God.

Isabel Contreras is founder of  Life Motivations and an international trainer.

Helen Drew 59, English

When I hear the term Age Esteem I think of the value that older people can bring. – And that would be from the experience that they bring.  If I think personally I think in my life I’ve done many interesting and very different things, and the nice thing to do would be to pass that on to other people.  Of course we do pass them on to our children, which is actually quite difficult.  Often the children don’t appreciate your experience and they don’t really want to listen; but eventually they get to the age when they do.  I have constantly reinvented myself I think. Whatever I started out doing when I left University at 22, I’ve used that experience but I don’t do the same thing now.

Helen’s Tips: I’m very into what I eat and I eat very carefully.  I’ve trained myself to eat carefully.  I make sure I always do some exercise because you also feel better if you do exercise.  And when I get up in the morning I like to have the lot of my day planned out.  I like to know what I’m going to do.  That for me is my raison d’être, my purpose.

I like to think young but I like to look young as well.  I like to keep abreast of fashions.  When I was growing up in the UK the saying for ladies who dressed slightly younger than their age was “mutton dressed as lamb”.  I love to be a mutton dressed as a lamb and I enjoy people who are dressed a lot younger than they probably should be dressing.  Just because I am my age I will still occasionally wear high heeled shoes or platform shoes if I like it.  I will tailor my look for the fashion of that season and I will always buy new clothes every year.

There is always something new to learn and there is always something new you can be doing.  I’m training my mother who’s 81.  I just persuaded her to buy a laptop and I’m training her on how to use it.  She’s a bit nervous about it but we’ve got the email sussed (figured out) and while I was training her I thought, “Oh, I wonder, when I am 81 what will there be new for me to learn at that age?”  I think I will be up to learning it.

I was trained as a designer but didn’t paint for years.  It was only recently that I thought, “Well I’m not going to go down in history as a graphic designer or a trainer but maybe I can carve myself a small niche as a painter.”  I’ve taken on the new challenge of showing my paintings.  I’ve got three expositions coming up and I’ve just hired myself an agent which I think is a wonderful idea.  I hate selling my own work.  If someone else can do that for me I’ll be quite happy.

Helen Drew is a trainer, graphic designer and watercolorist.  Her exposition at the Gallery Chausse-Coqs in Geneva, Switzerland will take place December 5-23, 2010.

Inez Kirby 74, NY, USA

I think Age Esteem is not letting age become a factor in what you do in life, not giving in just because you’re old.  My mother is 96 and she’s one of the most young at heart people that I’ve met in my life.  I think that that affects all of us, her kids who are all now in their 70’s.  When we look at Mum and very productive older people  I always think it’s really funny when you hear someone of 30 say, “Oh my God.  I’m going to be 30.  I’m going to be so old!”  I’ve never ever felt that way in my life.  I always try to approach the age that I am and enjoy it for what it is because there is nothing much you can do about it.  You might just as well have a good time as best you can.  Obviously it’s not always possible, but just take life and do as much as you can and enjoy it as much as you can.

Inez’s Tips: Not looking in the mirror. (laughter) Because when I look in the mirror I see my father.  I think for me it’s an innate thing.  I’ve always been an optimist in life.  I’ve never really looked back and regretted too many things, and I always try to enjoy what I do.  Obviously my knees are giving out a little bit and I’m having the, you know, sans (without) teeth, sans hair, sans everything.  I enjoy plays, reading, music, friends, and especially family.  I think family is a big part of feeling good about my age.