Ageless Living

 

“Agelessness happens in that space where we choose to step into joy and possibility rather than remain stuck in a vicious cycle of anger, fear, and grief. —Christiane Northrup. 

I became excited about beginning this site about three pages into Christiane Northrup's book Goddesses Never Age. I learned that women hide incontinence and don't tell their doctors for an average of 8 years. Many women have some degree of pelvic prolapse and, not only women who have born children. In Asia, it is estimated that adult diapers will outsell baby diapers in 2024. These are the facts, man.

My excitement isn't about adult diapers but about how we can talk about such subjects and help each other. 

Since I believe in the Mind-Body-Spirit connection, that our physical issues are not separate from our minds, and that our minds are not separate from our Spiritual understandings, that’s what I want to talk about. 

In her book Mindfulness, Ellen Langer, Ph.D., a Harvard professor describes how she conducted a study with men in their 70s and 80s. She had one group live as though they were in the 1950s when they were in their prime. They watched TV shows, listened to music, and looked at their pictures from that time. (Think the Beatles and Elvis Presley; if it had been women instead of men, they would probably be wearing circle skirts. )

At the end of two weeks, the men from the 50's experiment had better, hearing, vision, lung function and other measurements, plus they had a greater sense of well-being. 

The control group, who had carried on as usual, showed no change.

You don't have to be over 50 to join this group. However, I'm naming it Goddesses, 50 and Beyond.

Remember, we might be grandmothers, but we're the ones who wore miniskirts, went to Woodstock, burned bras, and championed Woman's Rights. We're the ones who taught our kids to tell the truth, eat good food, brush their teeth, say Please and Thank you, and then with enthusiasm, we said, "Okay kids, get your swimming suits, we're going to the lake."

 

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom”—Viktor Frankl.

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A Little Mythology

 I ran across this in Barbara O'Neal's book, The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue about the goddesses Hecate: 

Hecate completes the goddess triad of the Maiden (Persephonje) the mother (Demeter) and the wise woman (Hecate). She walks between the seen and the unseen world but resides in neither, carrying a flaming torch so she can see where others can’t—into the human psyche.

She is accompanied by her dog (or horse), her sacred animals, and offers her magical protection in times of danger. If you have that sense of foreboding sitting in your solar plexus, it may be that you are standing at a crossroad and are unsure about where you need to go next.

Rest assured that Hecate is walking alongside you, carrying her torch with which to guide you.”

--www.goddess.com.au 

 

 

I questioned O'Neal's use of the goddesses, not as sorcery, but as representations of the stages of a woman's life, maiden, mother and wise woman. Perhaps that is why it stuck with me.

The Present Doesn't Predict the Future

Find a little sweetness and pass it on.

 

 

The future never comes because when it's here, it's today. 

 

Today is fresh, new, beautiful. I want to believe it's a fresh start. Since I'm writing this, I can say whatever I want. If you want to listen to me, come on in, it's a great day to be alive.

 

About aging, what can I say? I got so excited when I began reading Christiane Northrup's book, Goddesses Don't Age, and thought, Wow, we need this. We need women encouraging each other to be strong,  not to accept standard views, to stay ageless."

 

We can't really be ageless; the body goes on with its changes, but our attitudes affect that, and our attitudes can be ageless. We can stop saying things such as "At my age." We can stop giving our age entirely.

 

When someone asked my mother-in-law her age, she would say, " I forgive you for asking that personal question." I thought I was following her example, but a doctor's office is different, isn't it?

 

Once, I gave my age to my Naturopath. I figured she knew anyway, but she hadn't done the math or even looked at the number. I don't know why I gave away that information, except we were talking about my recent birthday. 

 

She whipped out a Polst page--I didn't know what that was, but I soon learned that it is an advance directive of what I want if a medical team finds me unconscious, or not able to speak for myself.  (It stands for Provider Orders for Sustaining Treatment)  I was totally insulted. 

 

A Polst is a good idea, but at that moment I knew that she saw me differently. Before, we were contemporaries, but now I'm older. See, people, even doctors, judge you by your age.

So, people, we need to stick together. We need to encourage each other to live in an aura of agelessness. 

 

That's my desire.

Breathe--The Easest of Exercises, and Pet Your Cat--a Stress Reducer

Obi petting me.

Put aside the cares of the world for a moment. Put aside the house that needs to be cleaned. Take a moment to be you.

In my first blog post, I mentioned that I was three pages into Christiane Northrup’s book Goddesses Never Age when I became excited about creating this blog. We need a place to talk about how it is to be 50 and beyond, or coming up on it, and the issues and concerns that swirl around us now. 

Perhaps with that extra testosterone we are getting, we are more able to put aside the BS. Maybe I'm missing my women's group, where we talked about anything, our feelings,  hurts, emotions, spiritual path, and our body parts. They all work together, and when you squelch one, whatever the issue, it will squirt out someplace else.

Although my motivator of this blog, Dr. Christian Northrup, said that when she comes up a group of women having an "Organ Recital," (Not a musical instrument) she moves on, we will talk about organs here. But not in a gleeful way, like sharing how much we suffered in childbirth to get sympathy from those who have yet to experience it.

 “Let’s make it easy to be healthy and happy.”

I hope the word holistic or “Mind, Body, Spirit" doesn’t become cliché, for it is thrown around like peanut shells on a bar floor. Holistic means it's all working together, which is the way the body works. I am sensitive about using the holistic approach, for my husband has had health issues for the past year, and we have gone to one "specialist" after another as though the body is divided into zones.

Okay, here is what I set out to talk about today before I got carried away:

 The Breath.

 And the Lymph System.

You know about the circulatory system. The blood has a pump, your heart. Yet your cells are bathed in lymph, which has no pump and relies on body movement and deep breathing to move it.

Of course, breathing is automatic most of the time, but if you include some deep breathing and hold that breath, it will help move the lymph through your body, thus giving your cells more oxygen and washing away waste material and dead cells. As a result, you will have more energy and vitality.

Lymph contains many substances, including proteins, minerals, fats, damaged cells, cancer cells, and germs. The movement of the lymph can wash them away. Lymph also transports infection-fighting white blood cells (lymphocytes).

 A study on chicken cells kept in a clean substance—like lymph—caused those cells to almost achieve mortality—well, 30 years instead of 11.

Plasma passes from your blood into the lymph system, where it bathes every cell, providing oxygen and nutrients and removing waste material, dead cells, and such. Close to the heart, it is absorbed back into the blood, where the waste is removed and dumped from your system. 

Two things move the lymph: body movement and deep breathing. So, take a few deep breaths on purpose. (If you are sitting at the computer, stop, breathe in one for second, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 2.)

Remember the ratio: 1-4-2

You can double of triple those numbers. Inhale for  inhale for the count of one, two, three, four, hold for 16, exhale for 8.

 4-16-8--same ratio.

 If you feel strong, go for 6, 24, 12.

That feels good.   

Try this breathing exercise 10 times a day for 10 days and see if your energy isn’t more incredible.

See, it’s easy, breezy, beautiful. 

I'd love to hear how this breathing exercise works for you. Share your experiences in the comments below.

 Or, what do you want to talk about?