Possible Selves

A quote from William James in 1890


"Not that I would not,if I could be, both hansom and far and well dressed, and a great athlete, and a million a year, be a wit, a bon-vivant and a lady killer, as well as a philosopher, a philanthropist, statesman, warrior, and African explorer as well as a tone-poet and a saint.....  Such different characters may conceivably at the outset of life possible be a man.  But to make any one of them actual, the rest must be for or less suppressed.  So the seeker of his trust, strongest, strongest, deepest self must review the list carefully and pick out the one on which to stake his salvation.  All the other selves thereupon become unreal but the fortunes of this self are real....  [We].... choose one of many possible selves or characters to become."

This material was reported in the textbook Personality Psychology: Foundations and Findings and tells us that we can make a choice as we age.

ISBN  978-0-205-89745-2

The Challenge of Doing Nothing

Though most of our history, retirement was synonymous with idleness.  The reproach to retirement made a lot of sense to people of previous generations.   There work was often physical and grueling and the pay quite low,  allowing little opportunity for retirement savings.  So so when there careers are over, they may have had little energy or money for much more than relaxation.

Many features of the traditional scenario have changed.  Widespread automation  has made work a lot less physically demanding for most people.  Advances in health care are keeping people fitter and active through there retirement years.  The development of pension plans as an enhancement of Social Security has given them the where with all to undertake a wide variety of retirement activities.
These people are raring to go, yet the antiquated notion of retirement as laziness presists.

Doing nothing all day long is perhaps the greatest challenge--and the greatest danger--faced in retirement.  It is difficult to be idle for lengthy periods without feeling antsy--even isolated or abandoned in more serious cases.  People are social creatures who need to contribute to human endeavor throughout their lives. Thats one of the ways that we valitdate our own worth.

Yes you can lounge around all day if you choose,  and yet can sleep in as long as you want, but chances are that this approach to retirement will get stale pretty quickly.   A better plan might be to think of retirement as an opportunity to create your own daily daily schedule, focusing on those activities that bring you the most satisfaction.

When you ask retirees why they are doing what they are doing at a given moment. all to often the response is: "I'm just killing time."  Your time is to precious to kill. Enrich time.  Ennoble it.  Enjoy it.  it may be a challenge to use your time effectively, but that's insignificant compare to the challenge of doing nothing.

Material of this comes from "The Don't Sweat Guide to Retirement  ISBN 0-7868-9055-x The Author is Richard Carlson, Ph.D

Strategies For Combating Ageism

Individual Actions


1. Inform yourself so you have the facts to combat the misconceptions and stereotypes.
2. Examine your own attitudes and actions and try to eliminate those that express ageism.
3. Inform your relatives, friends and colleagues about the facts, especially when some prejudice is       expressed or  implied.
4. Do not tell ageist jokes and refuse to laugh when you hear one. Or change the ageist joke to one that is age neutral by specifying the subject's age.
5. Do not use ageist terms like "old fogy" and "old maid."
6. Do not use ageist language such as equating aging with deterioration and dying, or equating youth with health vigor, and beauty.
7. Point out to others when they are using ageist language.
8. Refuse to go along with discrimination against adults of any age, young or old.
9. Write letters to editors of newspapers and magazines pointing out and protesting ageism in current events.
10. Write letters to local officials, state and federal representatives, and executives pointinf out and protesting ageism in government.  Also write letters that support legislation against  ageism.
11. Boycott products of companies  that use ageist advertisement or discriminate against elders in employment.
12.  Join groups that oppose ageism and work with them.
13.  Vote for political candidates the oppose ageism
14. Testify before legislative committees and commissions about instances of ageism and show your support for legislation to reduce ageism.
15.  Become a candidate for political office or get appointed to commissions that can reduce ageism


The material above was gathered from the book Ageism: Negative and Positive by Erdman Palmore
ISBN  0-8261-7000-5

Who Am I

       "Who am I ?   "Our selves are made up of self concepts (ideas of what we would like) self-esteem.self- esteem (how we feel about ourselves) and social identity (the parts of ourselves we show to to others).  
     
     " Culture has a huge impact on how we think about ourselves.  People who live in more individualistic cultures, such as Canada develop an individual self concept, where as people in more collectivist cultures develop an inter-dependent self-concept."
     
      " No doubt feeling  good about ourselves is a good thing, but is low self-esteem the root of all social ills?  Although people think that those with high self-esteem are smarter, more likeable, and more physically attractive, do better in school, achieve more on the job, have greater life satisfaction and happiness than those with low self-esteem, this is not supported by research.  Similarly, it is not true that low self-esteem is problematic, causing relationship problems, aggressiveness, alcohol  and other drug abuse, premature sexual activity, unwanted pregnancies and other social ills."

    Material found in Personality Psychology: Foundations and Findings  Canadian Edition
ISBN  978-0-205-89745-2

Meditation, A thing I love

The source of this information is;  Personality Psychology: Foundations and Findings (Canadian Edition) ISBN 978-0-205-89745-2;  Chapter 8  The Neuroscience  of Personality.
For the last 10 years or so, since my retirement, I have become an active user of meditation.  Aside from doing  it during the day sitting inside I meditate when I go for my morning walk and when I go to bed at night, where I meditate until I fall asleep.   So it is very interesting to explore the information in the textbook named above.

"What if we told you there was a way that you could be healthier and happier?  It's not a drug, it doesn't involve massive psychotherapy, it's not painful, and its totally free.  What is the miracle cure?
Believe it or not it's meditation."

"In one study, participants who wanted to learn  meditation as a from of stress reduction.  The meditation group went through an eight week training, compared to the control group.  The training group.  During the training the ones who received meditation training practiced staying in the here and now instead of planning, worrying, thinking of, or fantasizing about the future, what most of us do when given a few moments to sit still.  The meditation group members tuned  in to their breathing  and practiced regulating their attention to not thinking about these things--to think about nothing in fact."

"Overall, the data suggests that regular meditation  fundamentally  fundamentally changes how our brains work and this activation is related to both the emotions we feel and how we respond to stressful events.  The researchers surmised that meditation makes people more open to experiencing positive emotions and less reactive to negative emotions with the overall effect of decreasing their anxiety and improving immune functioning."

And this is just a small part of a very interesting book

Living In The Here and Now

Living in the Here and Now and
Joined by the Age of Seventy Five
I am very happy to be still alive
And have a body that can stand

Each morning I awake with a smile
Breathing deeply all the while
Keeping me is a desire for artistry
With  painting's and poetry

Now I sit and hear rain sprinkles
And think about my face wrinkles
Sooner or later I will go
Hopefully after the snow

So I send this message for you
Pay attention to what you do
Be happy until the End
And keep in knowledge
That Life's your friend






















i

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