Understanding your emotions is another aspect of emotional health. In other words, how are you feeling about the present situation; how are you feeling about your age; how are you feeling about what you are reading here? Understanding your own feelings your own emotions and accepting them for what they are while remaining positive is key to healthy emotions.

• Acknowledge your emotions. It is healthy to express emotion.
• Accept your emotions as the thermometer to how you feel in a particular situation or relationship.
• Strive to remain as positive as possible.

One of the overpowering emotions for many people of all ages during this COVID-19 pandemic is fear. – Fear of the unseen virus and fear of what might happen to you personally or to a loved one. Fear eats away at you until you deal with it directly.

• Sign up for a free copy of “7 Ways to Live Your Life to the Fullest Right Now” on AgeEsteem.com. Chapter 2 teaches you to Tame Your Fears.
• Try putting aside a “worry time” each day. Make this a time when you face your fears and make the rest of the day worry free knowing you will worry at the designated time.
• Journal about your fears. Put your fears down in writing and leave them there.
• Do you have a friend you can speak to about your fears? Sharing your fears can take some of the sting out of them.

I believe we actually are at an advantage as the elders of the world, because we have lived through so much more than the younger generations. We are able to place things into perspective. We have seen enough to know that this too shall pass.

Age esteem is a boost to Emotional Health.

Bonnie Fatio

A highlight of spending a few weeks in Florida age is to take breaks from my activities to walk on the beach and just enjoy “being”. There is something reviving and stimulating about splashing through the seawater as the waves wash up on the shore.

Yesterday walking on the beach I passed a woman searching among some scattered shells. Following the hurricane there are very few shells on the beach this year. I said this to her
as I walked near her and we struck up a conversation. 30 minutes later we were still talking. She fascinated me with stories of her multiple activities and her love of life.

She was definitely an AgeEsteemer. I learned that her activities included stimulating discussion groups, volunteering where she interacted with all generations, and traveling to the new and unknown. It was clear that she was living fully, keeping her mind alive, stretching herself further, and interacting with different people – which obviously included speaking to strangers on a beach.

Hmm. I wonder if she thought I was an AgeEsteemer, too.

Bonnie Fatio

KEEP UP YOUR “AGE ESTEEM”

Does the accumulation of years sometimes get you down?  Then have an injection of positivity from Bonnie Fatio, the Founder of AgeEsteem, an organisation which provides everyone with “the vision and means to live our lives fully at every age with a positive attitude”. 

Based in Switzerland but accessible from anywhere in the world, Bonnie is a highly experienced motivational speaker and coach who decided to tackle the negative views and stereotyping about seniors that abound in society, and which we ourselves absorb to our detriment.  She envisions “a world where age and aging are celebrated and people of all ages are recognized as important, contributing members of society” and works hard to promote this.   Bonnie is a sought-after speaker around the globe, and runs workshops to help people feel good about themselves at any age, as well as contributing her advice and message to other organisations, including the United Nations.

You can read about Bonnie and AgeEsteem on her website  www.ageesteem.com  where you can sign up to receive her zesty newsletters as I do and even receive free e-gifts from this inspirational lady.   Go on, get a regular dose of Age Esteem. It’s all completely free and is equally valid for men and women.

Written by age-esteemer Debbie King, this was first published on her blog, Age With Me. Debbie lives AgeEsteem. She has attended AgeEsteem workshops and models positive aging in all she does. I encourage you to visit her site to learn more.  Thank you, Debbie King! – Bonnie Fatio

Say “Yes” to 2016!

One of the many keys to living with age-esteem is to acknowledge that you have control over the realities of your life.

When I was 12 years old and leaving for summer camp, I said to my mother, “I wonder if I will have any fun. I don’t have any friends going to this camp.” My mother stopped what she was doing, looked me straight in the eyes and asked, “Do you want to have fun?” “Oh, yes!” I replied. “Then decide right now that you are going to have a good time, and you will,” she said simply. I had a fabulous time at camp.

Does this sound too simple?

Assuring your happiness during this new year really can be as simple as deciding what kind of a life you will have in 2016 and then embracing each day as it unfolds.

People with age-esteem know that the number of years you have lived have less influence on your health and happiness than your  attitude. Anticipate happy moments and they will be yours.

Say “Yes” to 2016 and bask in its joys!

Happy New Year!

Bonnie Fatio

Gratitude Is My Attitude

When I was born,

In a Hotel Suite,

With Mother, Father, and brother Pete,

Our cast of four was thus complete,

An absolutely perfect feat!

All was perfect, or so it seemed,

And then we grew and grew much older

(We’d not yet heard of Age Esteem!)

each year braver, brighter, bolder.

Now I am in a Twilight zone,

My future’s not as long as yore,

The family’s gone, I’m left alone

But positive there’s much in store:

Depending on my attitude

And facing Life with Gratitude!

Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®

Age Esteem Fashion

If fashion

Is your passion

And staying smart

Becomes an art,

Then show that style

With a Big smile

And skirt your troubles from your heart.

Don your oldest and best garments

(Beaming at their vintage seams),

Dressing up by adding “charments”

And looking young with AgeEsteem.

Written by Alexandra Taylor for AgeEsteem®

On today's AgeEsteem Telesummit, Dr. Jen Palmer ND shared five factors to keep our minds sharp and our bodies healthy as we age. Since she gave such precise content, I am listing the five factors here.

Note that since there are so many options when shopping for supplements, she recommended specific high quality, cost effective products that she uses herself. 

She says, "…There are certainly other great products out there. I recommend purchasing these from NEEDS.com. NEEDS also offers free wellness consultations and can help you with a variety of issues."

The 5 factors are:

1.  A healthy lifestyle that includes a positive attitude, healthy foods and  regular exercise.

2.  Super Omega 3 gems Fish Oil by Carlson, NEEDS code: CAL-6231-250

3.  Doctors Best Curcumin featuring Meriva NEEDS code: DBS-6041-060

4.  Magnesium for the brain- Neuromag by Life Extension, NEEDS code: LEF-5089 and Magnesium citrate by NutriNeeds, NEEDS code: NNN-5014-100

5.  VITAMIN B12 methylcobalamin chewables by Life Extension, NEEDS code: LEF-5033

Dr. Jen works with NEEDS but does not make money with these recommendations. She will offer you a free personal wellness consultation, call 800.634.1380 (USA) and leave a message that you heard Dr. Jen Palmer speak on the Age Esteem telesummit, and she will call you back. Our listeners from other countries can reach her by email at purenutrition@msn.com.

Bonnie Fatio

How Do You Define Health?

How do you define health?  If we wish to be healthy as we age we need to define what it means. The definition given below is also a good definition of  age-esteem. – The difference being that you can have age-esteem even in the presence of disease.  Age-esteem is dependent on a positive attitude toward life in all circumstances.

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

World Health Organization-1948

Grace Chumley, 52, Washington

What comes to mind when I hear the term Age Esteem is as you are getting older embracing who you are and being proud of that, and not wanting to shrivel up and think that your life is over.  – To still know that you have something to contribute to society.

Living in the United States a real concern with aging is to have the finances to survive with the Social Security falling apart. So my biggest concern is what will become of me when I no longer have an income that I am earning through work.  We are fighting that here.  Government wants us to retire even older, which gives us no time to live.  By the time we do get to where we can retire and not have to actively work in earning income we don’t have a chance to live any more.  That isn’t productive.  We have worked all our lives.  I think we should be able to enjoy our lives and live.  I worry that there will not be the finances there, or the care that I need if I need to have care.

Another concern is not having a community to live in where you are also accepted as someone who can contribute.  I know that my parents’ generation said, “Don’t ever put me in a home”.  Now we have better homes and better assisted living but they are unaffordable to some people.  So, will my children take care of me?  What will happen?  Will I have a community of friends I can do things with?  Will I have companionship, friendships?  These are concerns.

Grace’s tips:  On a looks level, I’ve always taken very good care of my skin.  I’ve always felt that was important so I’ve taken care of myself that way.  I obviously need to take care of myself better with exercise; but I think what has kept me feeling young is having a positive attitude and smiling.  It’s my best attribute.  I love to laugh.  I love to laugh at myself.  I remember coming home one time and saying something that I had done that was really stupid.  My husband was like, “Why do you want to tell me about that?  That is so embarrassing.”  I thought no, I am embracing how strange and silly I was.  It’s fun.  I’m laughing at myself with the world, not at myself in a negative way.  So I think laughing and smiling is just something that keeps me young at heart.  I love to smile.  I love to teach youth to smile.

I think we have a choice in life.  I have chosen to be happy with whatever is thrown at me.  I think that is a choice we can individually make.  We can look at our lives and we can be angry; we can be sad; or we can be happy.  I think if we choose to be happy we can be much more productive, have more fun and share that with other people.  Then they will have fun too, love life, embrace it.

Grace Chumley, Grace Under Pressure, Chumleyfamily.blogspot.com   

(If you have ever had to deal with the death of a loved one, this blog may be of precious help.)

Photo credit: Bonnie Fatio

Bernice Seigel, 78,  Holiday, FL, USA

What is Age Esteem?  Being a senior citizen myself I can put myself into that category because I feel fine being of the age I am.  I have a great deal of esteem for myself and for others of my age.  I have a great deal of respect for age and try to deal with my age the best I can.

One of my concerns with aging is that we moved here (Holiday, Florida) late in life two years ago, and I was just hoping that I would be able to fix the house and to be around to enjoy it.   It’s the same thing for my husband who just bought a brand new car.  We have the goal that we are going to live!

My chronological age is almost 79, but I feel as young as the people around me.  I’ve always worked with younger people.  I think that has a great deal to do with it.

Bernice’s Tips:  First of all I’m fortunate enough to have good health.  That is the most important thing.  My husband also is in good health, so we are able to do a lot of things together.  But we also do things separately.  He’s the math and science person and he taught.  I am the humanities and the languages, the fun person as far as that is concerned.

My tip is working with younger people, being with younger people.  I didn’t want to move into an older community because I honestly cannot relate to those people.  I sing in a chorus.  When we are singing for the senior citizens I am so happy to be one on our side of the stage.  I feel for them and I am very thankful.

I keep myself very active.  I’m involved with the chorus.  We go out to lunches.  We go shopping.  I just have a positive attitude toward life.  I’m at an age where I can enjoy it.  I feel fortunate.  We have the house and financially the means to live.  We have lovely children who are very active themselves and encourage my husband and myself to do what we have to do.

Get up and move around.  My parents died at 90 and 91, so my genealogy is pretty good.  But my parents thought when they turned 65 which is retirement age here, that was the end.  My father was more active, but they just waited all that time to die, which is horrible.  They had everything to live for.  They had their own house.  They owed no money.  They stayed in their house.  I was fortunate enough to be able to help them stay in their own home with help until they passed on.

My sister who is 8 1/2 years younger than I am has my same positive attitude.  She is 70 now.  Her husband died 3 years ago and she just got herself a new boyfriend.  He is 78, my age.  She says, “Look, if you can be as great at that age I guess he is also.”  Yes, I think you need a good attitude of mind.