How To Attract Love

Have you ever noticed how wonderful things happen when you least expect them?  The same is true for love.  Love has to find you.

How?  By being your wonderful, authentic self.  It is no good to pretend to be someone else, because you will not attract the right love if you do.  You want to be loved as you, with all your qualities and your faults.  You want to be accepted for who you are.  So just be yourself!  Love yourself.  Get on with life, doing what you love and loving what you do.

When you are happy and enjoying life, you become attractive.  You have an inner glow and excitement that attracts other people to you positively, the kind of people who will appreciate you for who you are.

• Meet new people: practice a sport, volunteer in the community, join a club.
• Participate in activities that you enjoy and that use your talents.
• Be visible.  It is difficult to attract love if no one sees you.
• Mix with people of all ages.
• Encourage, support and mentor others.

Love Me

Each of us wants to be loved.  Love is necessary for our health and well-being.  Scientific research with babies stresses the importance, indeed need,  for love and attention in our early years.  The research shows that love and touch directly impact a baby’s physical, emotional and mental development.

Yes, love is essential to us, and at all ages.

The most important love is our self love. I don’t mean narcissistic love, but genuine acceptance and love of who you are.  Before you can truly love others you must love yourself.

You may cry out to others “love me”, but  how can they find you lovable if you do not display and portray that love within yourself?  This need to love ourself is crucial at every age and stage of life.

Two difficult periods for recognizing our self-worth and loving ourselves are during our adolescent years when we are defining who we are and what we want, and then again when we reach our retirement years and are redefining who we are and what we want.

• Remind yourself that you are lovable and worthy.
• Make a date with yourself to do something you love.  Pamper yourself.
• Keep a diary of the positive comments that people make to you, what others admire in you.
• Make it a habit to speak positively to yourself.  Throw out any negative thoughts.
• Each time you look in a mirror, say “I love you!” to your reflection.

May you love yourself at every age and stage of life, knowing that you are lovable and worthy of love.

May your love for others overflow into all areas of your life.

May you embrace all that comes your way with confidence and love.  

May love fill your heart today and every day of the year.

I love you!

Bonnie Fatio

Saint Valentine

The ever Saintly Valentine

Is a special friend of mine;

He has the gifts which come with time

(the ones which are so hard to rhyme!)

Such thoughtfulness and love and care,

And generosity to spare.

He’s ageless and esteemed the way

He keeps hearts full on his own day.

I always feel so very merry

On that date in February!

Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®

Valentine collage by Bonnie Fati0

Going to the movies is good for your age esteem.

• Films entertain, inform, educate.
• Going to the movies is a social event that brings us into contact with others.
• Movies stimulate our imagination and creativity.
• Laughter, tears, and other emotions are freed.
• Watching foreign films stimulates our language skills.

Big Bird

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.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Today is celebrated as Thanksgiving Day in several countries of the world.  But isn’t every day a day of thanksgiving?  We have so much to be thankful for !  Even on the days that seem to be grey and dismal when we want to complain, we can be thankful that we are capable of complaining.  It means that we realize that life could be better and that we still have higher aspirations than just what today may bring.

Gratitude is an important facet of age esteem.  Gratitude, feeling thankful because we recognize our blessings, is key to feeling good about yourself at the age you are today.   What are you thankful for?

I am thankful to be capable of thinking and learning.

I am thankful for my sight, that makes it possible to bask in the beauty of nature.

I am thankful for my hearing and to enjoy laughter and the rustling of leaves.

I am thankful for my arms that make it possible to hug.

I am thankful for my voice and being able to express my thoughts aloud.

I am thankful to feel emotions, especially love.

I am thankful to smell the freshness of the air after a storm.

I am thankful for Age Esteem.

I am thankful for family and friends.

I am thankful for those without names who have touched my life.

I am thankful for those who share their goodness.

I am thankful for YOU.

Bonnie Fatio

Daniel Meylan, 76, Paris, France

Age esteem?  Esteem is already important alone.  With age it is even more important.  It is good to put them together.  We’re not so old.  We must continue to esteem ourselves and to care for ourselves well, not let ourselves go.

Daniel’s Tips:  I force myself not to let go of what I have always done.  I oblige myself to stay physically fit and to not be a vegetable.  I walk a lot.  A couple weeks ago I fell because I was racing to catch a bus.  It was a lesson.  I will not do that again.  It has taken me these weeks to recuperate my normal way of walking, which has to do with regaining confidence.

At present I have a problem.  If I don’t know people, I have a difficult time to carry on a conversation like I used to.  I am destabilized because I don’t find my words like I used to.  As a result I panic which makes it worse.  To improve this I am going to a coach specialized in helping me find the words that I have lost.  It is a long journey.  I completely stopped speaking at a certain point and now I am trying to recuperate the vocabulary I’ve lost.  I’ve also lost much of my English and my German.  Now I force myself to make conversation with others.  I actively engage in social occasions.

For the intellectual side I read books on the Middle Ages to learn about that era.  It is very difficult for me to concentrate, but I insist on doing it.  It is also another way to recuperate some of my words.

It’s also important to be with family, with the grandchildren regularly.

I go to a center for older people several times a week.  There is a woman there who is 100.  She manages to keep physically and mentally fit and is a strong role model for me.  She is well dressed.  I am considered someone who is still completely present.  I feel comfortable there but sometimes wonder why I go.  I am still completely independent which isn’t the case for most.  I get there and home by my own means.  I want to keep my autonomy.  It’s important for me.

We go there to live as well as possible as long as possible.  I am in the section that designs and paints in the morning and does gymnastics in the afternoon, though I am in much better physical form than the others.

I am strict with myself for all questions of remaining in shape.

Bonnie Fatio

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