I need to change everything in stroke, that will take a while. I have lots of countries to visit, will require tons of walking. I also have all the Colorado 14ers to climb.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/lifestyles/seniors-with-strong-reasons-to-live-often-live-stronger/
After making it through the maelstrom of middle age, many
adults find themselves approaching older age wondering “what will give
purpose to my life?” now that the kids have flown the nest and
retirement is in the cards.
How they answer the question can have significant implications for their health.
Over
the past two decades, dozens of studies have shown that seniors with a
sense of purpose in life are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease,
mild cognitive impairment, disabilities, heart attacarks or strokes,
and more likely to live longer than people without this kind of
underlying motivation.
Now, a new report in JAMA
Psychiatry adds to this body of evidence by showing that older adults
with a solid sense of purpose tend to retain strong hand grips and
walking speeds — key indicators of how rapidly people are aging.
Why
would a psychological construct (“I feel that I have goals and
something to live for”) have this kind of impact? Seniors with a sense
of purpose may be more physically active and take better care of their
health, some research suggests. Also, they may be less susceptible to
stress, which can fuel dangerous inflammation.
“Purposeful
individuals tend to be less reactive to stressors and more engaged,
generally, in their daily lives, which can promote cognitive and
physical health,” said Patrick Hill, an assistant professor of
psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
who wasn’t associated with the study.
But what is purpose, really? And how can it be cultivated?
Anne
Newman, a 69-year-old who splits her time between Hartsdale, north of
New York City, and Delray Beach, Fla., said she’s been asking herself
this “on a minute-by-minute basis” since closing her psychotherapy
practice late last year.
Building and maintaining a
career became a primary driver in her life after Newman raised two
daughters and went back to work at age 48. As a therapist, “I really
loved helping people make changes in their lives that put them in a
different, better position,” she said.
Things became
difficult when Newman’s husband, Joseph, moved to Florida and she
started commuting back and forth from New York. Over time, the travel
took a toll, and Newman decided she didn’t want a long-distance
marriage. So, she began winding down her practice and thinking about her
next chapter.
Experts advise that people seeking a sense
of purpose consider spending more time on activities they enjoy or
using work skills in a new way. Newman loves drawing and photography.
She has investigated work and volunteer opportunities in Florida, but
nothing has grabbed her just yet.
“Not knowing what’s going to take the place of work in my
life — it feels horrible, like I’m floundering,” she admitted, in a
phone interview.
Many people go through a period of trial
and error after retirement and don’t find what they’re looking for
right away, said Dr. Dilip Jeste, senior associate dean for healthy
aging and senior care at the University of California-San Diego. “This
doesn’t happen overnight.”
Newman’s focus has been on
getting “involved in something other than personal satisfaction —
something larger than myself.” But that may be overreaching.
“I
think people can get a sense of purpose from very simple things: from
taking care of a pet, working in the garden or being kind to a
neighbor,” said Patricia Boyle, a leading researcher in this field and
professor of behavioral sciences at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center
at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
“Even small
goals can help motivate someone to keep going,” she continued. “Purpose
can involve a larger goal, but it’s not a requirement.”
Older
adults often discover a sense of purpose from taking care of
grandchildren, volunteering, becoming involved in community service work
or religion, she said. “A purpose in life can arise from learning a new
thing, accomplishing a new goal, working together with other people or
making new social connections when others are lost,” she said.
Tara
Gruenewald’s research highlights how important it is for older adults
to feel they play a valuable role in the life of others.
“I
think what we often lose as we age into older adulthood is not a desire
to contribute meaningfully to others but the opportunity to do so,”
said Gruenewald, chair of the department of psychology at California’s
Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences at Chapman University.
Her research has found that people who perceive themselves as being
useful had a stronger feeling of well-being and were less likely to
become disabled and die than those who didn’t see themselves this way.
Some
researchers try to tease out distinctions between having a sense of
purpose and finding meaning in life; others don’t. “Practically, I think
there’s a lot of overlap,” Boyle said.
After Barry Dym,
75, retired a year ago from a long career as an organizational
consultant and a marriage and family therapist, he said, “I didn’t ask
myself did I have a larger purpose in life — I asked myself what gives
meaning to my life.”
Answering that question wasn’t
difficult; certain themes had defined choices he’d made throughout his
life. “What gives meaning to me is helping people. Trying to have an
impact. Working with people very closely and helping them become much
better at what they do,” Dym said in a phone conversation from his home
in Lexington, Mass.
“I feel of two minds about purpose in
older age,” Dym said. “In some ways, I’d like to just shuck off that
sense of having to do something to be a good person, and just relax. And
in other ways, I feel deeply fulfilled by the things I do.”
Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News
Use the labels in the right column to find what you want. Or you can go thru them one by one, there are only 28,987 posts. Searching is done in the search box in upper left corner. I blog on anything to do with stroke.DO NOT DO ANYTHING SUGGESTED HERE AS I AM NOT MEDICALLY TRAINED, YOUR DOCTOR IS, LISTEN TO THEM. BUT I BET THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET YOU 100% RECOVERED. I DON'T EITHER, BUT HAVE PLENTY OF QUESTIONS FOR YOUR DOCTOR TO ANSWER.
Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.
What this blog is for:
My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.
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