A Positive Way to Think About Aging

Greetings!

NOTE: When I refer to good mental health, I am speaking of being absent of mental illnesses such as Alzheimer's or diagnosed mentally debilitating illnesses.

If you are an adult with good mental health, you are capable of CHOOSING how well you take care of your mind and body. This is true whether you are eighteen or one-hundred!

We are all aging chronologically; however, growing older is not synonymous with becoming outdated, useless, purposeless, boring or the other negative stereotype associated with advancing in age.

 

I like to think of aging as evolving. 

 

Evolving (a.k.a. aging) means growing, maturing, and progressing! As you long as you are alive, you can choose to evolve by trying new things, and using your maturity to become more efficient at living.

Look around you sometime. You'll notice people who perpetuate the negative stereotypes of aging by refusing to exercise the bodies they're still using to traverse the earth, or you'll hear people referring to themselves as over-the-hill. When you see the negative aspects of aging, it's usually the result of negative thinking & choices!

There are numerous senior-aged adults running marathons, biking, hiking, swimming, bowling, dancing, doing yoga, and many other activities. Of course, it's not just about physical activity; spiritual and intellectual pursuits matter, too. Spend time with good people, volunteer, maybe host a game night for a few acquaintances from time to time thus partaking in living because to evolve positively in life you must participate, not stagnate.

Feel free to share additional insights in the comments section below!

Best wishes for our (yours & mine) optimal health and wellness,
-Kaja 

For Simple Decisions Try This!

Greetings!

Recently I was trying to make a simple, non-life-changing decision while I was at a breakfast-type restaurant. Basically, I was trying to decide between two delicious looking entrées. Both meals were on the healthy side and equally appealing to my appetite, but the longer I mulled over which want I wanted, the harder it felt to make a choice. Luckily, I great idea flashed in my mind!

I acted on that idea and flip a coin! Guess what flipping the coin did? It provided me with instant relief. By flipping the coin over such a simple decision I was done spending time mulling over the two dishes!

Of course, keep your wits and understand that I am not suggesting we flip a coin over life-changing matters such as where to attend university, whether or not to get married, or what size vehicle to buy. Big decision require sincere thought and strategies. In another post, I will address the topic of making big decisions.

Staying in the present, most likely you will agree that for small decisions such as picking out which meal to purchase at a restaurant, which lip gloss or nail polish to wear, or picking out a tie to wear with a dress shirt - we should not expend to much time and energy. Since time and energy affects productivity, it's best to use them wisely.

The next time you find yourself trying to choose what food dish to order or which DVD movie to watch, reserve your time and energy and flip a coin!

I hope this tip helps you deal with making simple decisions. 

I blog about different topics (big and small) that affect our human experiences, so stayed tuned and take care!

Best wishes for our (yours and mine) optimal health and wellness,
Kaja Green-Tovar

In Matters of the Heart

Greetings!

In matters of the heart, it is important for you to love yourself so you can really love your significant other, family members, friends, or whoever is near and dear to you.

One way to show love to yourself is to be proactive about dealing with or managing stress. Every person incurs some kind of stress once in while, but if you find ways to deal with it adequately, you can keep from being ongoing (chronic) or from becoming life-threatening (heart-attacks, and other medical conditions).

Some simple ways to manage stress and keep it from damaging your heart are to:

• Relax
• Talk with a friend to prevent concerns from boiling within
• Exercise - the release of endorphins will help you feel better as you cope with whatever concerns you have
• Breathe deeply and slowly - this will help you to relax
• Have Fun - Do something you enjoy that requires you to be engaged (such as dancing, drawing, journaling, reading, completing word puzzles, strength training, or whatever engages you so that you only think of the activity you are doing)

Have a great Heart Day, Week, Month, & Year!
Kaja Green-Tovar

Being Happy Is Beneficial To You AND Others!

Greetings Dear Reader!

It's been a couple of weeks (or more) since my last post. I got busy and had to deal with a very unpredictable schedule.

Today I'm sharing that being happy benefits you, AND the people around you.

The benefits of being happy for YOU:

*Feeling happy means you are not feeling overly stressed

*Happiness allows you to interact kindly with others, and in turn they will most likely act kindly towards you as well

*Being happy boosts your confidence about life, helping you to feel that life is great - or at least okay

The benefits of you being happy for the people around you:

*When you're happy, the people around you can relax

*The people around you can do what they need to do calmly

*Your happy vibes will make them feel happy, too

There are plenty more benefits of being happy. Feel free to leave a comment with other benefits of being happy.

Best wishes for our (yours and mine) optimum quality of life,
Kaja Green-Tovar

Daily Planning Allows Us To Use Time Effectively

Greetings Dear Reader,

My last post was four days ago on 12 September. So far I have been keeping up with daily planning, which is this months topic.

As I am continuously aware of what my daily schedule involves, I am seeing opportunities to implement time for other goals I wish to accomplish and actions I wish to take.

Daily planning allows us to effectively assess how we are spending our time. It also lets us know when and where in our schedules we can add or delete activities in order to do all that we want. And yes, sometimes the thing you want to do is get more rest! Whatever is you wish to accomplish, daily planning will help you.

Best wishes for our (yours and mine) optimal quality of life!
Kaja Green-Tovar

Starting Over With Achieving My Goal

Greetings Dear Reader,

On September 2, 2014, I posted about making daily planning a habit. Well, guess what?! I have to start over!!! I did attempt to establish the new goal but did not take actions to implement my goal for a week. Luckily, this is a personal goal and not one that someone tasked me with.

I am starting over today (12 September 2014 - Friday). My new job requires me to literally be up and down (in the sky and on the ground) but there is no reason I can not accomplish the goal of daily planning. After all, this should be done in advance anyway and tweaked as necessary.

Therefore, I am starting over with achieving my goal of making daily planning a habit! I am going to annotate my schedule for the remainder of this month and make updates each evening and/or morning when necessary. By the way, I am treating myself like I would my best friend (since I really am my #1 best friend) and I am reminding myself that at least I tried and encouraging myself to "try again".

 

Best wishes for each of us to have a productive, high quality existence,
Kaja Green-Tovar

Making Daily Planning A Habit

Greetings Dear Reader!

I'm blogging this month about making a daily planning a HABIT. Why? Because this is something I need to improve upon and the best way to make it happen is to gain support and be held accountable by sharing this goal with others. Plus, I'm sure there are other who like to begin or renew the habit of daily planning.

Why plan the day when anything can happen? Somewhere someone is reading this is asking, "Why plan the day when anything can happen?" or thinking, "Life is much better when the days are 'spontaneous'."

I get such thinking as I, too, am aware than anything can happen and I am all for spontaneity - but... daily planning helps us to prioritize, mitigate the possibility of becoming over-extended, and lets you know ahead of time if you have that extra time for a little 'spontaneity'.

Better planning would have made today less taxiing or a little more relaxed. You see, this evening I will attend training for my new job and will not be done until the wee hours of the morning. At least knowing in advance when I have to be there helps with budgeting time (a.k.a. time-management) for napping before I go in.

Also daily planning keeps us from forgetting what needs to be done and lets us know when there's time to simply do fun stuff.

Again, the benefits of planning our day are listed below:
**Prioritize to-do list
**Mitigate the possibility of becoming over-extended
**Better budgeting of time (better time-management)
**Helps with remembering what needs to be done
**Let's us know when extra time will be available to simply do fun stuff

I hope this month's topic helps you as much as I'm looking for it to help me.

Best wishes for our (yours and mine) optimal health and wellness,
Kaja Green-Tovar