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Holistic Health and The Elderly. Holism. Morning Exercising. Nursing Home. Do you feel the same?.
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Do you feel the same? • Physically, certainly not. I have always been very comfortable with my body. Not vain. But I felt blessed. Now, I just can’t get things working “properly”. I completely believed I would be able to restore lost muscle and health. I am finding it difficult to accept and reconcile my present body with the resilient, responsive physical body I lived in for most of my life.
What are hardships of age? • One of the "hardships" of age is psychological –– one tends to feel irrelevant. In a room of younger people, it is interesting to observe the dynamics. The primary intercourse is between or among the younger. Some of this is physical (sexual) tension, of course. But a lot of it has to do with the perception of younger people that once a person has stopped working, the opinions or observations offered are really not pertinent.
What is your support group? • In seeking to keep my mind active, I attend classes at a center organized to serve an older population. My own is called Lifetime Learning Center where classes are offered 5 days per week on a wide range of subjects. In our instance, most classes are taught by talented and highly qualified teachers who volunteer their time to instruct a wide range of academic classes, computer classes, art, yoga, Feldenkrais, etc.
The academic classes are taught by retired higher education teachers who are likely quite determined to keep their own academic talents in shape. Warm friendships have been formed over the past ten years I have been attending this center.
What do you enjoy doing? • I Still enjoy most of the things I have always enjoyed: cooking, reading, movies, opera, theatre, walking, My children -- and friends. Perhaps, people in general.
What do you do to stay healthy? • I Am still recovering from a back injury and subsequent surgery. The physical therapy has been specific and directed toward rehabilitation. In addition to those exercises, I try to walk daily or exercise on a machine in my home. I have always been aware of the role nutrition plays in good health, so try to keep abreast of what is known and/or suspected by leaders in this field (which certainly includes those with a whole body approach to health).
What would you have done differently? • Probably not much. I feel most of the important decisions of my life have been guided or chosen because I thought at the time that I was doing "the best thing". Of course, in hind sight, I made mistakes. But given the time and circumstances, I tried to do the best I knew how.
Growing up with older parents in depression times influenced me greatly and no doubt colored many of the decisions I have made. They had to be strong to survive; yet, they were truly kind and generous. As a small child we lived on a ranch in the mountains where the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad passed nearby. I would see men riding atop the railroad cars and every once in while, one would drop off the moving train and come down the hill to our house looking for food. They usually offered to work for their meal. Sometimes they were set to chop a little wood so my mother could cook them something. But they were never turned away hungry. • I suspect this kind of generosity shaped my feeling that a guest can do no wrong. Of course, this can get one into some amusing, even difficult scrapes, but by and large, it's a nice way to live.
