Taking Care of Me: Growing Old Gracefully

As some of you know, I teach continuing education classes for child care providers through Child Care Resource and Referral.  My favorite classes are a series called Child Net – a 10 week series that focuses on how to deal with parents and kids, how to layout your home for better usage, activities for kids, health for kids and food for kids.  The last night is all about taking care of you.  I love this night.  It is my favorite of the whole bunch. The premise of the class is to point out to the participants that if we don’t take care of ourselves it really doesn’t matter what we’ve learned because we won’t be able to put what we’ve learned into action.  This is a very hard concept for childcare providers.  They are givers and will give and give and give until their well is empty and are actually hurting themselves by giving too much.  This is true of many community worker jobs as well. Living my day-to-day life, I try to remember that for myself…”If I don’t take care of myself, I can’t put what I learn or want to do into action”.  I want to grow old in a healthy way, be that of mind, body, or spirit.  I have found myself saying this many times to my husband: I’ve been trying to be more conscious of growing old gracefully, but with life’s ups and downs it can be hard sometimes, so I am celebrating little things that I am doing. Celebration #1- I had my annual mammogram.  Yep-annual for me is sometimes 15 months apart rather than yearly but I got it done. Celebration #2- I have gotten back into the habit of eating breakfast. Celebration #3- I am spending more time with Ruby.  When I was so busy a couple of months ago, my Ruby time got nipped a bit.  Now I am working on getting out with walking with her or even just playing fetch with her.  Being outdoors is good for me and watching her run, play, and romp just makes my heart happy. Celebration #4- I’ve developed an “attitude of gratitude”.  All month long on the blog, I’ve taken the time to write one thing each day that I am thankful for.  WOW..that has really been good for me.  I’ve bypassed lots of the yuck and just found the good.  I hope to continue that…not on the blog but for me personally. Celebration #5- I am taking time to do a few crafty things for me.  Purchasing the cross stitching kit the other day was just what I needed…something for me.  Working on the Bonnie Challenge and sewing my UFO’s. That’s me time sewing and I need that to keep me charged up and wanting to do the deadline quilting.  Often times it’s just for 20 minutes a day but 20 minutes is good. Too often we humans think that to be healthy we need to lose weight, have perfect cholesterol, run marathons, eat perfectly and go to the gym regularly.  Although those things are grand and great for some people, most of us don’t or can’t do them.  I have bad cholesterol in my family and while I manage it with my doctor, there’s little I can do it to change it completely.  I can, however, do small things to improve my health:  Get my mammogram, eat breakfast, hang out with Ruby, keep my “attitude of gratitude” and do some craft things for me.  All of that will help me feel more relaxed and happy… that’s taking care of me. What are you doing in your life to take care of you so you can grow old gracefully??  What small things are you celebrating??

• Get Old is an initiative developed by Pfizer  to challenge people of all ages to rethink what it means to Get Old and take a more active role in their health and quality of life at every age.  Whether it’s through watching what you eat, physical exercise, spending time with family and friends or participating in an activity you’re passionate about — each of us has the power to decide for ourselves how we want to Get Old. It’s not just about living longer, but living better.

• What are you doing to Get Old well? Tells us at GetOld.com and join the conversation on Twitter.com/GetOld and Facebook.com/GetOld. 

I am participating in a sponsored campaign hosted by Pfizer and Get Old. I received compensation for this post. All opinions stated are my own.