Do the sunshine and colors of Spring put a spring into your step?

Do you sometimes feel joy well up within you when you see the first  buds bursting on the trees, smell the odors of Spring or hear the birds chirping happily?   I do.  In fact I have caught myself  singing or  laughing out loud from the pure happiness of rediscovering Spring in the air.  It is as though the world is coming back to life after the dreary days of Winter and all God’s creatures share the pleasure.

Spring into Spring with enthusiasm and joy.  Both are there for the taking – and are free.  Simply meet nature head on.

• Walk among the trees.
• Listen to the chorus of birds.
• Take a handful of earth and feel it between your fingers.
• Savor the smells of flowers and buds.
• Plant seeds and bulbs for your own garden or window boxes.

Nourish your soul and age esteem with the joy of the season.  Spring into Spring!

Bonnie Fatio

Sometimes our love for ourselves becomes so faded in our minds that we forget how wonderful we are.  It is like the tide rising so water laps over our age esteem, self esteem and confidence and washes away our positive image of ourselves.

Keep your age esteem, self love and confidence alive.

• When you first look into the mirror in the morning say to your image, “I love you.  I love you and accept you just the way you are.”  Do this even though you want to develop and improve in many ways.
• Make a list of your qualities.  What do people praise you for?  You may have beautiful eyes, brilliant smile, knack at putting people at ease, taking big ideas and making them simple to understand, whizzing down ski slopes, describing events, working through mathematical formulas…  No quality is too small or too great.
• Begin a daily diary of your accomplishments.  Something I learned from working with the intellectually challenged is that even the smallest accomplishments are important building blocks in our lives.  Be generous with yourself.  It isn’t because the result was part of a team effort that you can’t take credit for it.  You played a role in the success.  Without you it would not have happened.  Write your accomplishments each day.

Who cares if the tide rises and washes over your self image.  You can love yourself and keep your age esteem and confidence strong.

Bonnie Fatio

Who is most present in your life?  Who is always there for you?  Who is your best friend?

The heart drawn in the sand has no name in it.  It is waiting for the name of your best friend.  You probably have answered the questions with the name of someone near and dear to you.  Most of us have.

I challenge you to look at the heart differently though, and answer the questions with your own name.  –  Because you are the most important person in your life.  And before others can fully appreciate and love you, and before you can truly love someone else, you need to love yourself.

You are the one constant in your life, the one person who is always with you.  No matter where you go, there you are!

Make this Valentine month a time of reconnecting with yourself, enhancing your age esteem, appreciating your qualities, and lighting your life with love that begins within you, for you!

Bonnie Fatio

Each day of this new year will bring new opportunities and experiences to be experienced and savored.

Do you look forward to each day?

One of my favorite AgeEsteem mentors and friends was Doris Blunt.  Doris was a woman of amazing inner faith and strength.  She always seemed to be bubbling over with happiness and interest.  Yet she had buried two husbands, both of whom she had accompanied through Alzheimer’s in their last years.

When I asked Doris how she remained so enthusiastic and happy she offered me the following secrets to her happiness.

• When you wake up in the morning you have choices.  You can listen to the birds and give thanks for the day as a new blessing and get up to greet the day or you can lie in bed and feel bitter about your aches and pains.  She chose the first.
• Remind yourself that whether you have a good day or a bad day depends on you and the attitude that you bring to it.  She brought a positive attitude which began when she first awoke.
• Decide what your purpose for the day is.  Doris was the sunshine of the home where she lived, so she always put on her sunniest smile when she left her room.  She said that although her smile was not always genuine when she put it on, it definitely became real by the time she met another person.  In fact her smile became infectious.  Others returned it!

These are simple yet powerful pointers for each of us to enhance our age esteem and positive attitudes to live happier lives.  Let’s look forward to each day!

Bonnie Fatio

My heart overflows with love and gratitude.  Life is truly a blessing.  I am ever thankful for the loved ones in my life: a loving husband, daughter, son-in-law, two precious granddaughters, sisters and spouses, cousins, and numerous friends whom I treasure.  There is no time for wallowing in complaints or disappointments.  We are too busy living, loving and learning with a positive attitude.

Oh yes, lesser experiences and relationships are put in our paths, but that is also part of living, loving and learning.  Hurdles are put there to teach us vital lessons and to show us new dimensions of life.  They push us to become a better person.

People with Age Esteem know the value of living, loving and learning with a positive attitude.  Thank you for sharing your Age Esteem in the way you live, love and learn.

Bonnie Fatio

Rejoice!
Let your voice
Be the clue
To the you
Of your Choice.

Written by Alexandra Taylor after the chapter “Rejoice” in the book
AgeEsteem: Growing A Positive Attitude Toward Aging
by Bonnie Lou Fatio

Bubbles and Kisses!
The ones float away
The others might miss us,
But each in its way
Is Life’s miraculousness
making special each day.

Written for Age Esteem by Alexandra Taylor after the story “Bubbles and Kisses”
in AgeEsteem: Growing A Positive Attitude Toward Aging, book and CD
by Bonnie Lou Fatio

Lessons of Autumn

Do you remember rolling in the Autumn leaves?  Most of us who grew up in areas of the globe where Fall is synonymous with Autumn leaves spent happy moments of our childhood jumping into piles of leaves and scattering them with zest.

The other day as I was walking through the park I noticed several people watching me with looks of amusement.  When I began to wonder why, I realized that I was gleefully kicking leaves as I shuffled through them enjoying the swishy sound that they made and the crisp feel around my ankles.  Is there supposed to be an age limit for such pleasures?  Surely not, I decided as I alternated with kicking a chestnut ahead of me on the path.

We need to let our inner child loose more often.  There is no age for feeling happy and connecting with your inner child.  Play and laughter are among the healthy keys to age esteem, to feeling good about yourself at the age you are today, every day.  Play and laugh in the autumn leaves.

• Borrow a child and rake a pile of leaves in your yard, a park or the countryside and delight in jumping and lying in the leaves.  Scatter them.  Throw them at each other.  Enjoy.
• Walk along a lane lined with leaves.  Shuffle through them.  Kick them at you walk, marching like a soldier.
• Use a chestnut as a baby ball and kick it ahead of you on the path.  You may take turns with the child or each have your own and race with them.

Note:  If anyone stops you in the midst of your play and laughter, tell them that you are practicing an Age Esteem inner child technique.

Bonnie Fatio

An Australian study tells us that people who give priority to their partner and children above professional success are happier in life.  Bruce Headey, Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne indicates that focusing on one’s social success and material belongings can actually stand in the way of greater satisfaction in life.

Your choice of partner is also important.  The study shows that women are most happy when their partners participate in family life.

Not enough people actually sit down to ask themselves what makes them happy and then do what they can to make their lives happier. So ask yourself

• What makes me happy?
• How can I build more of this into my life?

And then act on your answers!

Bonnie Fatio

Diane Smith, 53

What is Age Esteem?  When I first saw Bonnie Fatio,s book AgeEsteem: Growing A Positive Attitude Toward Aging I thought it was about aging.  I thought it’s going to tell me how to age gracefully and this it great!

What I worry most about aging is aches and pains.  I’ve never been sick a day in my life, but when I turned 50 I started feeling some aches and pains and that’s one of my concerns.  And you know I look in the mirror and I see wrinkles and I start buying eye creams and stuff.  I have beauty products to prevent aging.  The reason is that it’s probably been on my mind since I was 25.  I’m a believer in prevention.
Diane’s tips:  I stay active.  I have friends.  I love working in my garden.  I feel good working in the garden.  I’m strong enough to do things and have the energy.  I feel  good.   I have a cup of coffee every morning.  I read my Bible every day.  It gives me inspiration and I look at my life and I look at where I’ve been and where I am now and I’m thankful.  I thank God.  If God doesn’t bless me with anything else, I’m blessed.  Yes, I’m totally blessed.  I have a lot of great friends.  I have a wonderful husband whose a good friend.  That makes it easy.  I have a daughter.  I have grandchildren.  I carry their picture around and when I look at them I think what a wonderful blessing.  I’m just thankful for what I have and I don’t worry about what I don’t have.