Tired and Retired? – It Can Be Different

As I was meditating about what to write to you about today, I felt inspired to share a recent experience with one of my grammar school classmates.

My friend, who recently retired from her corporate career of some 40 years, was lamenting online about the change in quality of her “date day” activities as she’s gotten older. She had just returned home from spending her lunchtime at the podiatrist with her husband and her dinnertime at a local pain management center for a medical condition that she is facing, and was half-jokingly wondering about what the next decade would bring.

There was a definite theme among the comments and good-natured banter that followed. Many recounted similar stories of health challenges, while others expressed gratitude for being ambulatory enough to get to the doctor on their own, and still others shared that a reduced state of health was better than the alternative…specifically, death.

I found it interesting that no part of the discussion addressed the possibility that it didn’t have to be that way.

So, I added a comment of my own, questioning the commonly-accepted idea that people automatically get sick as they age. Then I invited anyone participating in the conversation to contact me if they would like to know how their life could be different. Perhaps surprisingly, my heartfelt offer received no inquiries.

Where did we ever get the idea that growing older automatically equates to diminished health and vitality? Have we been so conditioned to believe this and that there’s nothing we can do about it, that it often doesn’t dawn on us to consider that it might not be so. And if an alternative comes to mind, we may simply dismiss it as being out of reach for us.

Well the good news is, we really do get to choose. Allow me to explain.

Every day we make choices that either do or do not support our health and well-being. Some of these choices are deliberate. For example, you might think “I know eating this sugary dessert makes me feel crappy but it tastes so good that I don’t care” and so you choose to eat it anyway. That’s a conscious decision made despite a past negative experience.

For many of us, the majority of our choices are unconscious. It may be because of a lack of knowledge, or because we don’t fully understand the implications of the choice or we may not be connecting the dots about its impact on us.

Living consciously is about making your day-to-day decisions with maximum awareness. As we learn from our past experiences, our ability to make different and (hopefully) more appropriate choices grows. It is about moving beyond any guilt or shame that may be lingering from the past, and moving towards living with the intent to be our best self at every opportunity.

Which brings me to my point (and yes, I do really have one): the food we eat directly impacts the clarity of the decisions we make, and making conscious food choices directly impacts our long-term health and happiness. Consider how many pounds of toxic chemicals you would consume over the next ten years as a result of unconscious buying choices at the supermarket, and how that can be avoided by choosing healthier foods such as organic fruits and vegetables. The body, in its innate wisdom, knows how to keep itself in balance when given the right fuel.

Are you ready to feel better? Contact me and let’s get started.