"Ten Steps To Positive Ageing" ?

I find it encouraging to read about people over 60 still working
or even starting a new enterprise doing something they are
good at or always wanted to.

Yes, but anyone with any common sense has only to look around them and can see that older people these days are generally fitter and healthier than they have ever been and sailing round the world is remarkable at any age, but surely we should just greet evidence that older people do all kinds of things when they retire, as par for the course and so should other people.

Singling out older people who learn to ride, orpractice falconry or how to lay hedges, is actually reinforcing the myth that for an older person do anything other than moulder in front of the tv is quite remarkable and 'not for the likes of us'

Monica It was to do with the essay on the positiveageing website that, quite rightly, criticises lumping older people together as a homogeneous and frail body of people, stereotyping that has been exacerbated by Covid.

I do think some of those stories are remarkable: becoming a trapeze artist at 65; becoming a marathon runner at 74, sailing round the world solo at 66, taking up horseriding, taking up professional dancing etc etc. It shows, surely, that people are not sitting at home feeling frail and are keen to try new things and have adventures.

The relentless messaging about shielding ‘Over 70s and those with underlying health conditions’ – can make those of us at or near this chronological age, begin to inhabit an identity which is more ‘frail and vulnerable’ than we might previously have identified with. We can begin to see ourselves as being less able and at greater risk of severe ill health. In some people’s mind the conflation of ‘the Elderly’ being ‘over 70’ with ‘underlying health conditions’ can become a core identity which can crowd out or replace previous feelings of agency and independence

I've noticed it in this forum - posts from people still feeling reluctant to resume their old lives. Of course, the virus is still out there and we need to be cautious but have we been made to feel more fearful than is necessary because we have been conditioned to feel part of an homogeneous group which is deemed "frail and vulnerable"?
I can think of a recent returnee to GN who fits this to a T.

Mixing regularly with people of all ages works for me.

Morning

I suppose the most significant thing you could do would be to choose your parents carefully! Genes will out.

Spending time with my siblings and cousins. They’re all older than me and tend to treat me like an unruly teenager

Also I love spending time with the unruly teenagers in the family!

But why should doing something entirely new after 60, be any difference from starting something entiely new at any other age.

It is made such a fuss of because people expect us to be old and doddery and thinking it a triumph if we can find our teeth?

All those things people did after 60, should really be considered unremarkable.

Ixiom and Kathy72. I was being a tad serious there, wasn't I?

In the back of my mind was the the ongoing Guardian series A New Start After 60. All kinds of people taking up remarkable new pursuits.

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/a-new-start-after-60

Personally I prefer 'no step' aging. Just continuing to be yourself, do the things you always enjoy, giving everything a go if it interests you and you can do it, just making minor adjustments if necessary.

Mind you I am and have always been one of lifes 'Tiggers', for those who know their Winnie the Pooh.

An interesting post OakDryad.

Don't worry, OakDryad.
I have no intention of buying this. Just a lighthearted thread, as they say on here.

But I find your reference to 'internalised ageism' really interesting and thought provoking.
Thank you!'

Well, my mum walked between 3 & 5 miles daily until she was 80ish. So I think walking is a good way. Keeps the joints moving. Plus vitamin D from the sun.

I assume this is the Guy Robertson book?

I baulk rather when I see reviews such as" Our ageing and our longer lives are too often seen as problems rather than opportunities. From whose perspective? But I did follow a link to:

www.positiveageing.org.uk

where there is an interesting piece on Covid19 and the hazards of internalised ageism.

positiveageing.org.uk/thoughts/

The relentless messaging about shielding ‘Over 70s and those with underlying health conditions’ – can make those of us at or near this chronological age, begin to inhabit an identity which is more ‘frail and vulnerable’ than we might previously have identified with. We can begin to see ourselves as being less able and at greater risk of severe ill health. In some people’s mind the conflation of ‘the Elderly’ being ‘over 70’ with ‘underlying health conditions’ can become a core identity which can crowd out or replace previous feelings of agency and independence.

I've noticed it in this forum - posts from people still feeling reluctant to resume their old lives. Of course, the virus is still out there and we need to be cautious but have we been made to feel more fearful than is necessary because we have been conditioned to feel part of an homogeneous group which is deemed "frail and vulnerable"?

Yep, those must be the ten steps I took going into the consultant’s office to get prescribed HRT all those years ago.