Women Fear Aging

Men fear aging, too!

Unhappy woman sitting on the couch on white background. Looking like this, by feeling worried, won’t help, that’s for sure!

Many of my followers, subscribers, and customers are women!

Many of them inspire me to keep going!

Sometimes women write to express their appreciation for my work!

This helps too, thanks!

This woman inspires me to keep right on training. FitOldDog and Pauline, with AAA graft and AAA stent graft, respectively, before the 2015 Eagleman Half Ironman race. Pauline dropped me! Graft won!

From it’s inception, the mission of this blog has been to help people overcome major health challenges, specifically aortic disease, and to get them moving again. It was the problem I faced in 2010, and I found that I had to work it out for myself! Veterinary and Ironman training helped a lot!

Now, I work to inspire and motivate people to overcome the aging process.

After surviving yet another age-related surgery, I’m developing some experience in this field.

During recent research, I came across an article on Women And Aging, which addressed the author’s ‘five favorites.’ These are listed below, with my random comments:

1. Losing attractiveness/becoming invisible: We do become less visible as we age, it’s a fact, but not less attractive. The trick is to have a life. Contribute. Finding my happiness inside, and sharing it on the outside, seems to work quite well, most of the time. When it comes to attractiveness in women, speaking as a man, external beauty can be important, but an internal sense of beauty is even more effective on the receiving end. I’m convinced that how we feel about ourselves affects the way we are perceived in the outside world. I learned this in my 50s, and it changed everything for the better, where women were concerned. Staying fit, physically, plays a huge role.
   

   This woman inspires me to keep right on thinking. What a wonderful lady. I heard her lecture, and we got to chat at my son’s wedding. A wonderful person, and a great thinker.

2. Being left alone: Work to reach across the generations. I do this by training and debating with younger friends, and by staying young at heart. Staying fit, physically, plays a huge role.
3. Being a bag lady: I’ve encountered some very happy bag ladies, but I wouldn’t like the job. Being a down and out can occur, but it’s unlikely without a serious mental disorder or substance abuse. You can avoid this destiny, by, you guessed it – Staying fit, physically, plays a huge role.
4. Cancer: We have many more tools to fight cancer, but something will get us in the end. Looks like I’m about to fight it myself, unless the pathology report comes in better than expected. There is growing evidence, when it comes to fighting cancer, that, Staying fit, physically, plays a huge role.
5. Being dependent on others: I plan to put off this phase of life for as long as I can. I hate being dependent on others, which makes it hard for me to accept gifts. Sometimes this hurts people’s feelings! The answer is to feel appreciation for the assistance, but to put it off, using my mantra: Staying fit, physically, plays a huge role.

When I feel a little overwhelmed, by the challenges of aging, I meditate myself back to the NOW, and remember the words of Lao-tzu, as translated by Steven Mitchell:

FitOldDog learned a lot, about body-awareness training, from his famous four, from left to right, Karen, Feldenkrais, Mr. Bones, Anatomy, Rebecca, Continuum, and Tara, Gyrokinesis.

“Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don’t see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?”

Wishing you happy trails, ladies.

And freedom from the big life-waster, fear!

FitOldDog