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Feel Good about Yourself – At the Age You Are
- Do you feel people define you by your age rather than who you really are?
- Are you tired of seeing ageing being treated as a disease?
- Do you feel a loss of confidence related to age?
- Do you feel weighed down by regrets?
- Do you fear the future?
If you answered yes to any of the above then this seminar is for you.
Whether you are a healthcare professional, family caregiver, government official, teacher, parent, grandparent or business professional, how you relate to yourself at the age you are today is an essential key to being successful in what you do.
Going beyond exercise and diet, Bonnie take us through a holistic approach to a healthier, happier lifestyle beginning with your basic desire to feel sensuous, successful and significant at every age. And, yes, this is equally applicable to you men!
Bonnie has presented AgeEsteem at the World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland; the World Council of the YWCA in Nairobi, Kenya; Women’s International Networking Global Leadership Forum, Paris; Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, New York and more.
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Silvia Glatthard, 80, Swiss
Age Esteem is how you should try to manage your age. How to deal with your age. You should take aging as a normal thing. It is natural to become old and older. You should not do anything to go against that. Accept it and just be happy and be thankful all the time. I try to be like that and I am.
Silvia’s Tips: Attitude. This is my nature. My mother had the same spirit. Just go along and make the most out of every day each day and be happy. I have good friends. Where I live everybody knows me. When I go around everyone call outs to me. The other side is that everybody knows everything about everyone else, but I don’t mind that.
Regard less yearly aging
Regard more, and then esteem
The Joys of Life, and be engaging
in Fulfilling your own dreams.
Written for Age Esteem by Alexandra Taylor
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
Alex Stauffer, 67, Swiss
When I hear the term Age Esteem I think in our old age that we should be happier with what we have, including health and wrinkles, and not think “Oh I’m getting old now.” or “It’s too late.”
Alex’s tips: I would say you have to love yourself and in order to love yourself you have to be in good health, so you need to do something about it. I know I drink a little bit too much, but I eat healthy, I move a lot, I do my exercises, I try to help other people. But it’s not always easy.
I’m a little short tempered with people who have health problems because they do nothing about it. They do nothing to prevent the problems even when they have time to exercise and money to buy good food. I know it is sometimes expensive to eat good fruit and vegetables instead of junk food, but if you can do that and don’t do it, I have no patience.
Autumn Lessons
Switzerland has a new campaign to remind drivers to “Slow down, take it easy”. Whether or not we drive, this is good advice. Slow down. We all gain when we take time to slow down, step out of our routine, get a new perspective, re-evaluate and renew. It also helps build our age esteem. How do I want my life to be?
- Take a walk among trees and breathe in the odors of autumn.
- Lie on the autumn floor to get a new perspective of the trees and colors.
- Sit quietly with your eyes shut and commune with nature through the smells, sounds and feel.
- Feast your eyes on the beauty that surrounds you.
- Write your thoughts in a journal while in the midst of nature, allowing your thoughts to flow directly to your pen with no sensorship.
Bonnie Fatio
UP with growing older
Let your spirit soar,
Every day you’ll be much bolder
And wiser than before.
Written for Age Esteem by Alexandra Taylor
Anandi Smith, 23, British & Nepalese
Age Esteem is definitely a positive message on how you deal with getting older. It’s for all different ages. When I hear the word it’s not just based on older people or younger people. It’s for all ages. You don’t lose your esteem simply because you get older, provided you have esteem.
Anandi’s Tips: I think mainly is to have good role models in people around you. Obviously the media tells us that you’ve got to be young; old is bad. I study the media all the time and they put this picture in your head of what you have to be. No one really celebrates being older. There also seems to be a gap. It’s good to be 25 and then you’re respected after you’re 40 but that gap in between is not celebrated. You have all these expectations: You have to have a boy friend, to get married, to have kids and a career. There seems to be no celebration of this in between age, especially as a woman. For example, if men haven’t gotten married in that time, their main focus is on their career. If you’re a woman and have a good career at 25 you still aren’t fulfilled until you’ve ticked all the other boxes. But then once you’re 40 you are old enough to be respected because of your age.
I look at my mom who just turned 50 this year and I can see that her peak in career is actually now. Mine is just beginning and is just as exciting as hers, but I can see that the older she’s getting the more clever and intelligent she’s getting. She’s wired. Her career is moving. I respect my grandma a lot. She is on fire. She knows everything that’s going on in the world. She was one of the first teachers in the northeast region (England) that taught computers and she was very career ridden, which in those days for a woman was quite strange.
I’ve been surrounded by older women that made me think positively about getting older. I do have girl friends who are younger than me and I learn from them as well. Their generation is different from mine. They’re quicker than I am. You can bounce off ideas and experiences with other people who have a whole different knowledge. But role models for me are generally older than me. There are lots of women who I want to be like when I reach their age. I want to have their attitude and their energy.
In June of this year Dr. John Beard, Director of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Department on Aging and Life Courses, announced the launch of the Global Network of Age-friendly Cities.
Research from 33 cities, confirmed the importance for older people of access to public transport, outdoor spaces and buildings, as well as the need for appropriate housing, community support and health services and the need to foster the connections that allow older people to be active participants in society, to overcome ageism and to provide greater opportunities for civic participation and employment.
This is aligned with the vision of AgeEsteem of “a society where people of all ages are respected as contributing members of society”. I was privileged to meet with Dr. Beard following my talk on Age Esteem at the WHO headquarters in Geneva last month to discuss our common concerns around issues of aging. Very energizing and encouraging.
Bonnie Fatio
Monday, Sunday, Friday, Saturday
Every day an even better day.
Shuffle through the leaves of Time,
Celebrate your age, and climb
Each moment to it’s highest measure
Thankful for the slightest pleasure.
Sunday, Monday, Friday, Saturday
Every day an even better day.
Learn and grow through gathering years
Esteem your age and calm your fears
Read your heart and speak your spirit,
Truth is the world as how you see it.
written for Age Esteem by Alexandra Taylor
