People with age esteem have a positive attitude. Studies show that people who enjoy life with a positive attitude live longer and happier lives. This is not to say that they don’t have aches and pains like anyone else. They simple choose to take a different view of life. Rather than focus on their pains, they chose to concentrate on what goes well and to develop their interests. They are engaged in living.
Age Esteemers know that when we focus on the brighter side of life, we draw other positive people and opportunities to us.
- Become aware of your thoughts and words. Are they positive or negative.?
- Turn negatives into positives. When you catch yourself complaining or discouraging yourself, change your phrase to make it positive and encouraging.
- Surround yourself with positive people. Drop those who hold you back or put you down. They don’t deserve your time.
Bonnie Fatio
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
Bonnie Fatio will be speaking at the YWCA Southeastern Regional Conference in Miami, Florida on September 17th.
The YWCA is a global movement of 25 million women and girls working for justice, peace, health, human dignity, freedom and the environment in 125 countries. Age esteem is important in the lives of those within the YWCA movement regardless of age.
Planting sunflower seeds with Grandpa
Last year’s sunflowers are already enjoying a new beginning. Their precious seeds are being planted and a whole new cycle will begin. And thus they continue to live on and on.
Bonnie Fatio
The sunflower eventually fades and dies. It’s leaves dry and its color dulls. But even then it has a beautiful lesson for us. Not only do we hold its beauty in our mind, but the sunflower continues to live on in multiple ways.
- Sunflower oil for cooking,
- Animal feed,
- Bio diesel fuel
- Healthy, tasty sunflower seeds, and
- Cleaning toxins from the environment.
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
The sunflower is a wonderful teacher. Even before it opens into all of its splendor, it teaches us that
- Beauty is not something that simply splashes out a people.
- It is something that must be developed.
- True beauty grows out of developing and maturing.
- It is based on experience and learning as much as colorful pedals.
- Before we can shine on the outside, we need to create a glow on the inside.
Age esteem is also like the sunflower. It grows out of that glow on the inside.
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
