Personal Growth in Retirement

Personal Growth In Retirement[1]

First:  “Retirement often leads retirees to conduct their own life review…The values of our past lives may no longer be relevant. Taking on the task of finding things that are more relevant to this new stage of life…By the time we reach retirement we usually have fairly good idea of our strengths and weaknesses.

“…There are many pathways to personal growth.  They include philosophy, psychology, religion, martial arts and various practices like yoga and meditation.”

“Psychologists have noted that as we age we tend to become more inwardly focused. Taking stock of our lives at the onset of retirement is an example of this inward focus.  Perhaps this tendency is a natural aspect of the latter part of our life circle that gives us the opportunity to put our energy into self-discovery.  This can be applied with Meta games played for knowledge and personal development.

One of the Meta games is the “art game”.  Although the ‘art game’ ideally leads to an inner awareness loosely defined as beauty it often results in artists who exhibit technical proficiency but lack inner awareness.

The “religion game” is another meta-game. In its’ pure form it aims at salvation or self-development of the person, but history has shown that the politics of religion has often or repressed this purpose. It is referred to as the “master game”. 

The basic idea underlying of all great religions is that man is asleep, that he lives amid dreams and delusions, that he cuts himself off from universal consciousness (the only meaningful definition of God) to crawl into the narrow shell of personal ego.

We have heard the old saying of “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”

The decision to retire and when to retire and when to retire are among the most important decisions workers will make in their lifetimes. The choice to pursue personal growth and has less obvious material repercussions.  Nonetheless, it is the option that may have significant appeal for some retirees.  (This is just a small toe of the book)

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[1]   Material gathered from Essential Retirement: Psychological Concerns Created by John W. Osborne ISBN 0-9738303-0-1  

Searching for Meaning

Searching For Meaning[1]

Since the beginning of my retirement I have been asking myself; “who am I”. I believe that this blog is an important task that I have created for myself as I find information to send out to the world of the internet.  According to Dr. Osborne “Meaning provides coherence to our lives and leads to purpose.”  “ Our meanings may originate from our private experience of be taken from an outside source like science or religion. (While I grew up inside a Christian church in later years I have been closer to scientific research that focuses on level of probability rather than certainty).

Some of the things that meaning can take are:  “Trying to make the world a better place for others, working for a cause (civil rights); creating a new idea using technology; creating an art form or work of art; making the most of one’s life; working on one’s evolution to higher states of consciousness (I love meditation).  “The question remains as to the point of creating these types of meanings.  The concern is whether there is an ultimate meaning that encompasses all meanings.”  For me helping others has always been important ; quite likely because I was the oldest child born in my parent’s family and learned early that being a helper is “who I am.”

“Being part of a group or collective gives us the meaning of belonging to a group, ( for years I have been on the board of the local senior’s centre-LSRS. I have a meeting this afternoon.)  We need to work on our own self-development within the context of a world beyond narrow self-interest.  At the same time we need to be careful we don’t trade our potential self-hood for the security of the collective.”  Good Luck!

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[1]  The Above post was gathered from Essential Retirement: Psychological Concerns presented by John W, Osborne   ISBN  0-9738303-9-1

Searching For Meaning[1]

Since the beginning of my retirement I have been asking myself; “who am I”. I believe that this blog is an important task that I have created for myself as I find information to send out to the world of the internet.  According to Dr. Osborne “Meaning provides coherence to our lives and leads to purpose.”  “ Our meanings may originate from our private experience of be taken from an outside source like science or religion. (While I grew up inside a Christian church in later years I have been closer to scientific research that focuses on level of probability rather than certainty).

Some of the things that meaning can take are:  “Trying to make the world a better place for others, working for a cause (civil rights); creating a new idea using technology; creating an art form or work of art; making the most of one’s life; working on one’s evolution to higher states of consciousness (I love meditation).  “The question remains as to the point of creating these types of meanings.  The concern is whether there is an ultimate meaning that encompasses all meanings.”  For me helping others has always been important ; quite likely because I was the oldest child born in my parent’s family and learned early that being a helper is “who I am.”

“Being part of a group or collective gives us the meaning of belonging to a group, ( for years I have been on the board of the local senior’s centre-LSRS. I have a meeting this afternoon.)  We need to work on our own self-development within the context of a world beyond narrow self-interest.  At the same time we need to be careful we don’t trade our potential self-hood for the security of the collective.”  Good Luck!

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[1]  The Above post was gathered from Essential Retirement: Psychological Concerns presented by John W, Osborne   ISBN  0-9738303-9-1

Essential Retirement: Psychological Concern

Retirement within the Context of Lifespan[1]

To better understand the experience of retirement wee need to se it as part of our preceding lifetime rather than in isolation.  In many ways the experience of retirement is a continuation of our prior existence.   Our activities, lifestyle, habits, values, attitudes, personalities, identities, self-concepts and many other personal characteristics provide the prelude and foundation for our retirement experience even though our self concept may change from time to time depending on events and our moods.  For example, Susan struggled with feeling not very appealing at various points in her life.  But after losing weight, joining toastmasters and earning a Bachelor of Arts she felt more positive about her self.  Her self-concept changed.  However the consciousness that experienced these events was her continuing identity.

(This Blog is a perfect example of the process as I am a retired university psychology professor.  I not only continue to teach I send it out all over the world.

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[1] Material found within John W. Osborne  Essential Retirement: Psychological Concerns  ISBN 0-9738303-0-1

A short example of Ageist Humor

Ageist Humor[1]

Retirement

Man who has retired after 40 years of rushing to catch the commuter train, to his wife: Please turn my eggs over this morning; I don’t like them sunny side up.”

“Why didn’t you say so before?”

“ I didn’t have time before.”

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[1] Material gathered form :  Erdman P. Palmore  Ageism Positive and Negative

ISBN  0-8261-7000-5    For those of you who are exploring Ageism, I highly recommend this book.

After Retirement: Psychological Considerations

After Retirement: Psychological Considerations [1]

What does Retirement mean:

·   Does not always mean complete withdrawal from work environment

·   Some seniors have bridge jobs the holds between ending their primary employment and final retirement

·   Bridge jobs are associated with both retirement and overall life satisfaction.

Stability and Change of Personality:

·   For instance, if your are a hostile person you are unlikely to mellow much with age

·   The same is true for optimistic

Personality Traits contribute to Health and Longevity.

·   Personality is a strong predictor of emotionality and subjective well-being

·   Negative emotions tend to decrease with age

·   Positive emotions tend to remain stable; possibly because as we age we tend to seek activities and people that give us emotional gratification.

Ego Integrity Vesus Despair

·   Is a state we reach after taking care of things and people, Products and ideas, and having adapted to successes and failures of existence

·   Ego integrity: a sense of having integrated one’s life.

·   Perceiving the dignity of our style of life and defending it from potential threat.

Wisdom

·   Is the virtue that develops; informend and detatched concern with life itself in the face of approaching death

·   Physical and mental activity slows down

·   Simple wisdom maintains and conveys the integrity that accumulated experience of previours years.

Coping

·   Adaptive thinking or behaviour aimed at receiving or reducing stress that rises from harmful , threatening or challenging conditions .

Religion and Meditation

·   ‘There is a positive link between religion or spirituality and health,  marriage satisfaction, psychological well-being, and physical health.

·   Meditation is also a useful connector to physical and mental health.

Three Main Components of Successful Aging

·   Avoidance of disease and or disease related disability

·   Maintenance of high physical and cognitive functioning

·   Sustained active engagement in social and productive activities.

More about Personal Relationships

·   We tend to spend less time with others as we age

·   Relationships that we don maintain are important for our well- being

Social Contact Seems to Prolong Life

·   53% of men who are socially isolated die from cardiovascular disease and more than twice as like to die from accidents or suicide (compared to men who are not isolated

·   Large social networks and frequent social contacts also are connected with less cognitive decline.

Intimate Relationships

·   Marital satisfaction influences overall health

·   Being married itself is important for man; women’s health is more related to the quality of their marriage

·   Friendships are also very important for overall health.

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[1] One of my Power Point Presentations