Wednesday, June 15, 2011

"Live Your Life and Forget Your Age." Norman Vincent Peale



Ever had a thought in your mind, and then it flies away and can't be recovered, what is that all about. And of course we all have the walking into a room and forgetting why we trudged over there experience, but perhaps most baffling is being able to vividly recall childhood memories vividly and not being able to easily recall last week or month. Well, Norma Roth, author of Aging Gracefully with Dignity, Integrity and Spunk Intact: Aging Defiantly, has been searching for answers for over 20 years.

Roth believes wholeheartedly that growing older doesn't mean degeneration of mental faculties merely because the years change on your each birth date. It is only a number, after all, and "forgetting" is a natural part of living. There is no real need for panic now or in the future, but you will need strategies and techniques to meet the new situations provided by Norma Roth.

In Part II of Aging Gracefully, Roth goes into how computers are designed like our brains, we have limited short term memory and lots of long term memory. This allows us to process info as we operate and not get bogged down, while also giving us tremendous ability to recall smells, sights, sounds and tastes that all evoke memories, feelings and emotions.

It seems that, along with great strides in medical knowledge, we have also gotten extremely paranoid and scared of the slightest problem related to our memory. Roth wants us to stand down, stand back and get back to basics, remember that we can't even come close to fathoming our own brains, so starting with that let's us get over our own hubris with self-diagnosis or allowing family members or government bureaucrats to pass judgment on us. In fact, you should avoid government involvement in your life as much as possible, it seems to always come with a host of other problems.

Below are 10 Tips Tips For Staying in the Game and Keeping Ppeople Off Your Back about memory lapses, tell them to go pound sand and take care of their own problems. Your duty is to stay involved by reading all the time, keeping up on societal changes for the sake of keeping the brain engaged and don't lose a love of learning. Your brain needs to be exercised and stretched all the time.

The basic tools needed are simpler than people think: they include common sense, strategies and techniques. Smart, thoughtful people are already on to it and adapting new methods to meet challenges of aging as the need arises. No need to change your life drastically. No new skills required: just the good old ones that most alert, bright and assertive people have always used they go through life. New situations require new ways to handle them. You can do it! says, aging activist Norma Roth.

You have nothing to fear except allowing yourself to buy in to excessive concern——and irrational fears. Build your own solutions based on common sense and thought! Handle the issues surrounding growing older it as you have handled everything in your life.



TEN TIPS TO KEEP PEOPLE OFF YOUR BACK



Old concepts are out, new concepts are in as scientific advancements outpace old and new social attitudes. Simple responses to serious and frivolous issues for members of the Silver Generation and those entering "that age": compensate, deal with it, handle it and use common sense and humor says aging activist Norma Roth, author of Aging Gracefully With Dignity, Integrity & Spunk; Aging Defiantly



TEN TIPS TO KEEP PEOPLE OFF YOUR BACK

1. Don't leave the kitchen until you are done when you are cooking.

 Your senses will serve you well if you stay in the kitchen: You will smell or see any problems arising and act accordingly. (Bring magazines, papers, or use the time for short telephone calls, but stay in the kitchen when cooking and stay alert.)

2. Put things where you have always put them. Don't deviate ever!

The strange thing people are discovering is that a "`new place"`—even if it seems a great place— will fool you every time. For whatever reason, you will wind up not remembering that place. Stay with the old, tried and true. (Habits and routines are most reliable and wonderful tools to use)

3. When you forget why you went into a room: Stop! Go back to where you left your thought and wait a moment.

Surprisingly, this simple technique works—and many have already discovered it. As you get the confidence in this strategy, you will be able to stop and retrace your steps in your mind as to where you where when you had that thought— and the thought will usually reappear. Trust yourself. Your mind works in strange, but wonderful ways. It won`t let you down as much as you fear it will.



4. Use a five -and- ten- cent, ordinary word when you can't think of a word.

You are not competing to be a Rhodes Scholar, you are only making conversation, so go with the simple and accessible and don`t worry about it. As you stop being concerned, it will happen less frequently. Often, in conversations, you will notice others supply words to move a conversation along. Regardless: don`t make an issue of it and no one else will either.



5. Switch the subject when someone asks you what you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner yesterday and it makes you uncomfortable.

You might say, for example: What did you eat for breakfast? For lunch? For dinner yesterday? And have you been dining out? What good restaurants do you recommend? What foods? (You get the point).



6. When someone asks a question that puts you on the spot, like: What did you do today? Last week? Last month? Throw the ball back in their corner: "Nothing much. What did you do?"

A variation of the switch technique used above. If the "nothing much," rings a bell, it should. Remember that old movie called "Marty" with Ernest Borgnine? Throughout the film, he uses the same response in multiple situations: It`s a fun movie and a winning technique. Try it!

7. Be prepared when you expect company; it`s easier than you think. When you are expecting company, listen to the news!

You can scan headlines, you can hear bits and fragments of good discussions on the radio (Yes, that oldie the "Radio"` which is still in vogue and happens to have some good news programming (Try NPR for starters.) Or, you can always have your TV set on while you are preparing and hear the latest gossip and be more up on it than most others usually are.

9. When someone interrupts you, don't let them! Hold up a hand police person style. That is usually enough, but if not, say quickly and sharply: "Wait a moment."

People interrupt too often and the interruption intrudes upon one's train of thought, at any age I might add. Don`t let them interrupt!



10. Where did I put those keys anyway?

As for the keys you cannot find that causes such stress so many people, put a table by the door of your apartment or home. Leave your keys there, on a keychain that is big and noticeable enough and maybe has your initials on it.

About Norma Roth, www.normarothbooks.com

The author has published a number of poetry books for the mature from a personal perspective, dedicated to the last phase of life. In Scenes From a Summer Home, she finds there need not be boundaries between time and space, between beginnings and endings; while in Fear, Trembling & Renewal, she explores the theme of finding that when "the snow begins to fall," perhaps there is a way "to see the world anew" and--say a resounding YES! to life." In her first full length book: Aging Gracefully with Dignity, Integrity & Spunk Intact; subtitled Aging Definitely, Ms Roth seeks to paint a larger landscape whom she calls the dynamic, new Silver Generation for whom the 21st Century has begun to grant longevity and health, opening up endless opportunities for new dreams, new plans and as yet unchartered paths.

The author sees this new generation as robust and intelligent, highly skilled individuals, moving into their senior years, but not their vegetative ones. If they are to succeed in the achievements being made possible by science, medicine & technology, then, outmoded barriers and hurdles that stand in their way must be met head on as this Silver Generation moves into an era of unlimited possibilities for Aging Gracefully with Dignity, Integrity and Spunk--and, yes, Aging Defiantly.

Ms. Roth sees new meaning in the words of Tennyson's for this new dynamic generation: Come my friends...T'is not toolate to seek a newer world...strong in will/to strive, to seek to find and not too yield. She invites the reader to join her on this exciting journey of the 21st Century into what may truly become: The Age of the Silver Generation.