Gratitude. It's Good For Your Health!
- Written by J.J.
What makes us happier and healthier? In previous blogs I explored how sleep can help our memory and immune system and exercising our creativity can reduce medical visits and boost mental health. Today I'm considering gratitude. Simply cultivating gratitude might sound too easy to be effective but science believes it may have clinical use in helping people with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) and depression as well as other psychological conditions. Some research suggests it holds the power to help us cope, get better sleep and reduce stress. It may also help us to set and achieve goals. Most research shows a strong link between gratitude and life satisfaction but there's nothing more persuasive than personal testimony. Listen to the report below of bloggers suffering hardship during a 21 day gratitude challenge.
Working Past Retirement Age
- Written by J.J.
"There isn't a script for 65 anymore," Jacquelyn James, research director at the Sloan Center on Aging and Work at Boston College, told "Arizona Business and Monthly" this year,"We recommend the same thing we tell people in their 20s: Go try things." As more and more of us work past retirement age trends show that we're acting on James' advice. We're writing our own scripts as we stay in the laborforce longer, build start ups, and share our values with organizations that welcome our employment.
We're contributing to the work world in increasing numbers. A Congressional Research paper from 2009 examined the significant growth in our labor participation over time. In 1990, 56% of men 65-69 were employed full time. That increased to 61% in 2000 and 69% in 2009. 44% of women 65-69 worked full time in '90 and 2000 but participation jumped in 2009 as 54% took a full time job! 65+ male workers as a whole declined between 1950 and 1985 but rose, in 2008, to roughtly 21%. Women working over the age of 65 has steadily increased over time. More than 13% worked in 2008.
What happens in the workplace and labor pool directly effects many of us so contrast our labor participation trends with the picture drawn in a July 2012 report from AARP showing the stubborn unemployment facing older workers. More of us in the workforce equals more of us experiencing unemployment as we struggle to overcome post recessionary pressure. However, only 1/4th of 65+ workers who lost a job in the recession had found a job by January 2012 while the 25-54 group had much better luck. 60% found new employment. One wonders, then, why Senate bill 2189, legislation that would strengthen laws protecting older workers from discrimination, is slow to gain traction. Introduced in March, it langours in committee now and govtrack.us, a site that tracks congressional legislation, gives it only a 1% chance of passing. In fact, a Supreme Court decision in '09 actually made it harder to prove age discrimination. Yes, as confounding as it is, the Court made it harder!
As all of us in the work force know our contributions are valuable and equivalent if not equal to those of our younger coworkers. But selling that concept to managers and reframing the traditional perceptions of older workers is slow and difficult work. It will change but it hasn't yet. When it does we may make the work place a better place to be if the research of Dr Truxillo at Oregon Health and Science University is accurate. He reviewed several studies of older workers and concluded that we:
Tend to go out of our way to be helpful to our organizations and fellow employees
Exhibit less hostility then younger counterparts
Regulate our workplace moods better
Practice better workplace safety
Exhibit punctuality
Express fewer counterproductive tendancies at work
Older workers have skills, experience, and life traits that lead organizations and businesses to greater success. We know that. Someday soon managers will embrace it too. Look out employers-- here come the Boomers!
Update Jan. 17 2013 --Good story on working past the age of 75
Update March 2015: Article from the Wall Street Journal on how to age past retirement and stay in your job.
Update November 2015: From this month's article in the New York Times called After Years Out of a Job, Older Workers Finding a Way Back In: "The recession was over, but it was still a challenge to find a decent job in a rapidly transforming economy. In what she calls her “aha!” moment, Ms. Horton decided to take her degrees off her résumé — all of them — so as not to be perceived as overqualified, and to get her “foot in the door.”"
Changing the Terms We Use for Aging
- Written by J.J.
What's in a name? Identity. Names, such as our personal name or the name for our demographic identity or economic class help to define who we are within society. They're important, agreed? That's why I'm joining the bandwagon to stomp for thoughtful debate on new terms to describe those of us over 50. You know the names we've used for years; "seniors," "senior citizens" and, as we mature past middle age, "elderly." Do you identify with those terms? I don't. They're inaccurate and subject to stigma. Listen to this pushback on senior stigma from the Zimmers. We need names that reflect the vibrant variety in our g-g-generation not names that cause misunderstanding between generations and promote guitar bashing frustration.
We're a unique and active aging cohort living in a time when language and terms change rapidly. This is the right time to take control of how our lives are described. In these times many of us work well into our 70's or later. AARP realized that. They dropped their narrow organizational name, American Association of Retired People, for the simple acronym used today. This is no longer a world where 50 marks a jumping off point biologically either. New research, for instance, says forty isn't the new thirty---seventy is! Living longer and healthier with expanding human potential is a recent phenomenon that's changing our perception of evolutionary anthropology. In other words getting older isn't what it used to be. We're re-inventing the years past 50 and we need names that characterize this new reality. As Jack Rosenthal wrote in a piece called Wellderly, "language has not yet caught up with life."
Here's my suggestion:
Eliminate the name, "seniors""senior citizens" and "elderly" completely. Continue to refer to us simply as "adults," and use more targeted and less biased terms to specify age such as the "something" index ie- 50 something, 70 something or the + index ie- 50+, 90+ etc. Isn't it just as accurate (and maybe more so) to refer to a "50+ population" as it is to say "senior citizens?" What does the biased and stigmatized term "senior citizen" convey that can't be conveyed by the more objective "50+population"?
If we throw out "senior citizen" and "seniors" you might wonder where that leaves "senior discounts" "senior centers" "senior resources" and so forth? Offers of senior discount could easily be handled with age specific terms like "65+ discounts." In fact getting rid of the blanket terms "senior citizen" or "seniors" gives discounters more ability to target specific age ranges. They could get creative and have a 50% off for 50 somethings campaign for instance. Doesn't that seem less offensive, more flexible and easier to deal with? I'm the first to say I'm over 50 but I'm the last to acknowledge I'm a "senior citizen."
Essential senior resources, could be presented in the context of other age specific resources through something like the "Office of Human Development." We can replace the phrase "senior citizen resources" with "50+ resources" or "resources for age 50 and up." But an important part of this idea is to present 50+ resources alongside of resources for other stages of development. Why not look at age in this more wholistic way? Looking at older age as a progression rather than a condition could bring generations closer and break down the bias against older people.
And why not use the phrase "50 and up" as a catchphrase to identify senior centers and senior services too. I'd be 5 times more likely to walk into a place called "50 and up" as I would a senior center. How about you? Listen, we live in changing times. Businesses and organizations must change or risk becoming obsolete. We need resources and services as we age. To ensure that those resources can attract funders and consumers I think a name change is critical. It could rejuvenate those services and help them survive long into this century.
Please join me in talking to friends and relatives about changing the way we refer to our over 50 population. Use these new terms in your conversations with others. Get rid of the biased language of yesterday!
Update May 20 2013. The Administration on Aging, which oversaw resources for older Americans, appears to have migrated into the Administration for Community Living. I like the name of this agency but unfortunately our resources are now being grouped with those for Disability resources. This is the wrong direction with the right overarching name. Let's remove stigma from both disability and aging groups and start gathering resources for all stages of human development under the same umbrella.
Plants for Your Health
- Written by J.J.
When I moved to a small apartment facing a busy street I began to instinctively buy houseplants. Now, several years later, some people would say I live in a jungle but I counter with the joke that these plants have purpose: they clean my air and give me a healthier life. Well, it turns out there's a growing branch of research substantiating my assertion! NASA studies in particular find that many varietals of houseplants reduce indoor toxins and dust. Do you have enough plants in your house to combat the chemicals modern interiors exude?
Spider plants are champions at reducing the effects of car exhaust. Other star air purifiers are: peace lillies, ficus family plants such as weeping figs, draceanas, and palms. Not sure what these plants look like? In general all large leafed plants, because of their fast transpiration rates, are also good at cleaning your air. How many plants do you need to ensure health benefits? Here are NASA's suggestions taken from an article on the subject at Al's Garden Center:
- 1 - 8” or 10” sized houseplant per every 100 square feet
- 1 - Small 4” or 6” sized houseplant in your personal breathing zone (6-8 cu. ft.), for example: placed on your desk or night stand.
- 15 - 20 houseplants for 1500 sq. feet
Wikipedia also has a good table listing all NASA research and other studies in this field. So if you've recently bought new furniture, moved into a new home or apartment, or found yourself living alongside a busy street consider an investment in houseplants. My plants offer me more than clean air. They're lovely to look at and they encourage a regular schedule of watering which gives me routine and encourages me to care for myself as well as the plants. I think I'm happier and more balanced with a room full of plants and new studies are beginning to substantiate that claim too... but more on that later!
Update Jan 2014: Looks like deskplants improve work satisfaction and enhance focus according to recent studies.
Update November 2015: 5 reasons plants are a good indoor health resource from Tree Hugger.