Are you fierce?

We recently came across an interesting website, www.fiercewithage.com, the site is a call to action for boomers to not fear aging and to resist ageism. The founder of this site is Carol Orsborn, Ph.D. is an author and spiritual advisor.

 Dr. Orsborn believes that anti-aging messaging is destructive not only mentally, but that it could also have consequences socially, politically and economically.

 She considers this effort a “consciousness movement” and compares it to fighting for women’s rights. Dr. Orsborn has identified five flags, or things you should avoid saying and beware about others saying them and gently confront them about it.

 The five flags are:

1. Satire or jokes. Dr. Orsborn cautions against self-deprecating comments that may insinuate that older adults are a burden or that young people are not also forgetful. In particular she references the common phrases, “off our rockers” and “I’m having a senior moment”.
2. Youth-centric language. Dr. Orsborn states that referring to an older person as “youthful” implies that those traits can only be associated with a young person. She suggests instead using, “vital” and “passionate”.
3. Separating one out from peers. Here Dr. Orsborn is referring to statements like, “Can you believe I’m 60 years old?!” These type of statements make it seem that any positive characteristics could not be possible for someone that age and that anyone else that age looks worse.
4. Defining successful aging based solely on attributes normally associated with younger individuals. She cautions that we should be wary of equating strength, exceptional health or mental acuity as successful aging. For example, she refers to people who over reach their personal capacity when exercising and therefore they risk injury. She suggests following your desires and evolving passions.
5. Romanticizing or sanitizing images of aging. Dr. Orsborn calls attention to the problem of wishful thinking instead of being realistic. While we want to aspire for the best case scenario we need to prepare emotionally, practically and financially for the future.

 These five flags were published in a recent article in the Huffington Post. At the end of the article Dr. Orbsorn asks for a call to action and urges boomers to get involved with a “new consciousness” group.

For more information about that and about Fierce with Age visit them online at www.fiercewithage.com