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What Keeps You Up at Night?
We worry, we toss, we turn, we’re still up and staring at the ceiling of a darkened room. Yes, we’re older and we seem to need less sleep, but everything is causing us concern these days and making it harder to get enough zzzs. Here’s a list of our major concerns. We worry: about the killings in the Middle East, and if a realistic cease fire is sustainable, or even plausible. about Ukraine and the war that is now past year 2, and the U.S. supplying missiles and more. about a big election that’s only four months away, and all...
Please Don’t Ask! 20 Questions that Make Us Cringe
This is a delicate matter. We all may be a bit testier these days because of world problems, an upcoming Presidential election, TV overload and still escalating restaurant, food and gas prices. Blame anything and everything. We know we are cringing more when we’re asked questions that relate to personal matters that we may not want to discuss. Part of the reason may also be that we’re not sure how to respond whether it relates to our health, friendships, romantic relationships, work, where we live, shop, travel, what we eat, spend money on, how our parents raised us, how our...
Buying Real Estate at an Older Age is a Dilemma Many don’t want to Face
It’s a fact that stats concur; the vast majority of older Americans want to age in place in their homes, a familiar setting with people they know, trust and love. Whether still living in a rental where the monthly fees are soaring or a large home that needs regular, expensive repairs, has stairs and seems lonely with so many empty rooms, many aging folks are realizing these places don’t work for them any longer. Do you go through the ordeal of decluttering and finding a new place, even though you know inventory is in limited supply and the process is...
Want to Make New Friends? Meet, Greet & Don’t Make the Conversation all About You
We hear all the time that people at our older ages have a harder time making new friends. We’ve suggested many ways of doing so in prior blogs—taking a class of any kind, signing up to do volunteer work, joining a house of worship, getting a part-time job, finding a book club that has openings which may be at a library or community center. In our quest to find new friends, one of the cardinal rules we’ve learned to have people become interested in us—there’s no certainty they’ll like us, is to show interest in them. This is so basic,...
Assumptions: the negative noise in our brain that leads to misguided thinking
When faced with a situation over which we have no or little control and don’t have a definite answer or solution, our brains go on overdrive. We churn out assumptions—it could be this, or that, or maybe or not at all or all in. We are masters of spinning hypothetical scenarios, the way our dryers spin clothing around and around in cycles until it’s dry. We do the same until we’ve exhausted all possibilities. We have a good excuse. We’re creative types who cogitate and escalate as if our assumptions will make whatever is in our craw go away...