10 Comments

I am part of a women's writing group -six lovely women, aged 65 to 82. Four are married, two are widowed. All are, ahem, aging! I am submitting your wonderful Spring Cleaning questions to them as a writing prompt. I expect enthusiastic results. Thank you Janice.

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Apr 21, 2023·edited Apr 21, 2023Author

Sharron, How cool !! I will be interested in hearing how it turns out. Thank you!!!

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Such a lot of excellent information there! I agree that keeping positive and being optimistic is definitely beneficial at any age, but particularly when you get older and begin to challenge how you have been thinking.

This can be because there is a societal mindset that says that older people lose value once they move slower and find it harder to do things. Having the confidence to do what you want regardless of the opinion of others is important.

I have seen lots of family members who find aging a tricky situation, as not everyone thinks you should do what you want. Thanks for a thought provoking article!

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That societal mindset plays such a damaging role. To me, it is absolutely the wrong message and trusting the self is so important.

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What an excellent list, thanks Janice. This speaks to my heart and life passion! It's my mission to live a vibrant life as long as I can and empower others to do the same. The need for this became urgent (I use that term very dramatically) while watching my parents have a relationship filled with irritable bickering/silence, followed by my Dad's death and watching my Mom decline into dementia. They demonstrated many different roads I do not want to take.

I love this whole process but I think the thing I find most powerful is at the end when you say 'the first step is to figure out what stops me'. That is huge and something most people rarely do.

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Hi Donna, It's true and it took me a while to figure it out. I had a lot of surface excuses, but it wasn't until I get below all of that - that I understood what I had to deal with.

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This is so positively positive! I love your positivity! I've never asked myself any of those questions, maybe because I thought I might not be able to answer them, but as soon as life settles down a bit,I plan to ask and answer them.

I love the idea of aging well, at my own pace, in my own time, and it means a lot to me that you and I seem to be taking this journey together!

All the best of everything you decide to do.

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Hi Ramona, When I first went through the exercise a couple of years ago - my responses were an eye opener. I answered the questions again for the article and found that while my responses were similar, they were more in-depth and strong.

I, too, want to age well on my own time and in my own way. I am so pleased that we seem to be taking the journey together. Take care and thank you for being you.

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I like that you use the word strong. That really resonates with me, because as we age we get weaker physically, but our minds are still strong, and our thoughts are valid regardless if they take longer to surface!

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Apr 22, 2023·edited Apr 22, 2023Author

Hi Liz, Well said "our thoughts are valid regardless if they take longer to surface."

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