Gratitude and Purpose: 3 Keys to Unlocking GAP
Gratitude and Purpose: 3 Keys to Unlocking GAP After 4 ½ years of interviewing women over 70 for our award-winning podcast, Women Over 70-Aging Reimagined, it has become eminently clear that these two attributes, Gratitude and Purpose, are major drivers in creating and maintaining a vital, vibrant life as we age. And this is not only true for older women. Look around you. At every stage of life, there are women whose vitality literally seems to shine when she enters a room. It isn’t only her smile or her clothes. It’s her whole way of being. Every person she encounters feels singled out for special notice. When she’s asked, “What are you up to?”, her answers are full of excitement, verve and importance. She exudes purpose and gratitude as a natural part of her vocabulary, without ever using those two words....
IT MAKES ME FEEL OLD?
The real issue here is my desire for continued independence. I am not and don’t want to feel…needy or anything akin to helplessness. Believe me, I know I may be walking slower than I did when I was a 25-year-old Flight Attendant [Okay! Yes, we were Stewardesses then.]. BUT, you know what, my heart is still 25. My face, though it has some well-earned wrinkles, when I look at it in the mirror…I still see vestiges of that younger me. If you only see the years that have been added, you hurt me.
What Internal Ageist Beliefs Do You Hold?
Ageism is thought to be the last acceptable form of prejudice. We decry jokes about racism, gender, religion, and even weight, yet people of all ages poke fun at “old people,” based on misconceived stereotypes of inept, doddering, and fragile women and men who can’t quite fend for themselves. Yes, external ageism abounds, but what about internal ageism? We can be our own worst enemies when it comes to self-limiting, ageist beliefs about what we can and can’t do
Compassion and Caring
Our Women Over 70 blog is inspired by our podcast, Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined, where we talk weekly with women in their 70s-100s who shatter the myth that women become irrelevant as they age. You can listen to their stories in 8 different categories. While compassion is not a set category, this blog focuses on compassion and caring because this theme comes up regularly in the conversations with so many of our guests. Women Over 70 attracts vital women who care deeply about making a difference in the world they live in. As we move towards our third year, it is clear that women are involved in impactful pursuits, even if only a few have heard of them. Mother Teresa said: “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." What is social activism if not action that...
Female Friendship–A pillar of wellbeing
Our Women Over 70 blog is inspired by our podcast, Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined, where we talk weekly with women in their 70s-100s about issues that matter to women as we age. You can listen to their stories in 8 different categories. This blog focuses on female friendship a topic which shows up in all categories. Friendships with women are a mainstay in both our lives. We each have female friends that reach back to elementary and high school and to college, that come from homelife and workplace, and from shared causes and interests. Close friends come from our families of origin as well. Katherine Mansfield (modernist short story writer) disclosed, “The truth is, friendship to me is every bit as sacred and eternal as marriage.” Many of us who have had romantic male partners find that our female friends...
Nurturing Your Health
Our Women Over 70 blog is inspired by our podcast, Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined, where we talk weekly with women in their 70s-100s about issues that matter to women as we age. You can listen to their stories in 8 different categories. This blog focuses on Health and Wellness. If we don’t make space to care for ourselves, who will? Our minds, bodies and spirits need constant nurturing to maintain good brain and physical health. We are the only ones who can make it happen! A running theme through our podcasts is how thoughtful these women are in nurturing their health. They recognize that it doesn’t come easy. Does one have to get sick to bring us up short? We all know about the good endorphins released during exercise. We have to exercise to experience that, however, and first, we need the motivation to...
Claiming Your Worth and Acting on it
Our Women Over 70 blog is inspired by our podcast, Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined, where we talk weekly with women in their 70s-100s about things that matter to women as we age. You can listen to their stories in 8 different categories. This blog focuses on Enhancing Career. When did the people in your circle begin talking with you, if ever, about your career aspirations? Some of our podcast guests were in families that encouraged them to dream big and become whatever they wanted to be--through education, travel, creative ventures, entering male-saturated fields. For many of our guests, however, the presumed options were limited: teacher, nurse, or secretary. One guest’s mother announced, “you will be a teacher; your brother will be the attorney.” And most women over 70 were expected to marry and raise...
Purpose with a Capital ‘P’: the Centerpiece of our Social Services Category
Our Women Over 70 blog is inspired by our podcast, Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined, where we talk weekly with women in their 70s-100s about things that matter to women as we age. You can listen to their stories in 8 different categories. This blog focuses on Social Services. As a category, Social Service has multiple dimensions. Often, these services are thought of only in terms of governmental programs that serve the welfare of its citizens. However, individuals, groups and nonprofits equally and actively engage in action that helps others. We are often asked the question, “What do your guests have in common?” That’s hard to say with 131 episodes now released. They are women from various backgrounds and geography. And, yes, they are all over 70. Yet, purpose is probably the single most common denominator...
REINVENTING OURSELVES: IT’S NEVER TOO LATE OR TOO EARLY
This blog is inspired by our podcast, Women Over 70: Aging Reimagined, where we talk weekly with women in their 70s-100s about things that matter to women as we age. See Podcasts>Categories. You can listen to women’s stories in 8 different categories. This blog focuses on Reinvention. By the time you’ve reached your 8th decade or beyond, we imagine you know quite a bit about reinventing yourself, in large or small ways. What has been your experience with reinvention? For some of the Women Over 70 podcast guests, it has involved a dramatic change that makes their lives appear strikingly new. When Donna Marie Scheifler (episode #31) left the convent after 28 years, she had no clear vision of who to be or what to do next. Donna uses the metaphor of the chrysalis becoming the butterfly to describe her...
EXPRESSIVE ARTS – CREATIVITY IN ACTION
Creativity, of all types, is a recurring theme in the stories of our guests. Master storyteller, Advocate Margaret Burk, episode #115, believes in the power of story, not only to entertain but to touch the heart, spark the imagination and embolden the spirit. We couldn’t agree more. The very premise of Women Over 70 is to share the voices of our guests as they tell their stories on our weekly podcast. In doing so, they enable listeners to question, consider, express and give direction to their own aging. Our podcasts are divided into categories to make it easier for listeners to find topics that interest them. Expressive Arts was a natural category to include because so many of our guests are storytellers. As we listen to their stories we see that their art offers insight into who they are and how they...
Hopscotch, Egg Rolls and Snow Angels: Why Play is Important to Your Aging Self
Play has many benefits, across the lifespan. Perhaps it is time for each of us to ensure that play exists in our lives as we age. It can take on many different forms. Playing hopscotch (if we can still hop!), participating in Easter egg rolls and creating angels in the snow are activities we might derive pleasure in. Walking in nature, taking up improv, playing a musical instrument or participating in bridge games, while less physical, are also forms of play. We added Play to the categories in our podcast when we noticed how many of our guests emphasize the importance of adventure, fun, humor, joy, playfulness, and pleasure in their lives. We may have had high power careers, championed women’s rights or reinvented ourselves numerous times. We may have buckled down to take care of homelife, become caregivers...
Women’s Courageous Struggles Over Decades
March is Women’s History Month, dedicated to remembrances of women’s courageous struggles across the decades. While we celebrate women’s progress in making impactful changes, so much more remains to be done. Take, for example, the yet-to-be passed ERA, the century-old 28th amendment to the Constitution to provide women equal protection under the law regardless of sex. Just this month--March 2021--women Democrats advocated to remove a deadline for ratification that expired about forty years ago. With remarkable understatement, the bill’s sponsor, Jackie Spencer from California, said, “It is time to do what’s right and make sure that women are in the Constitution” (3.17.21). Many question whether just making us equal under the law will be sufficient to protect women and advance our rightful place in society....