What Will Our Future Self Tell Us?

What will your life be like at 80? This is one of the questions I ask my clients as we explore later life and make plans for retirement. I help people imagine their future, encouraging them to step into the years ahead and consider what truly matters. We can do it at any age, do […]

Growing Through Discomfort: The Secret to Vibrant Ageing

As I prepare for my upcoming tracking expedition in South Africa, I’ve been reflecting on a concept central to my research on positive ageing – what I call ‘productive discomfort’. This sweet spot between comfort and overwhelming challenge holds the key to continued growth in later life. Throughout my time researching retirement transitions, I’ve observed […]

Ageing. How Positive Beliefs Shape Health and Longevity

Dr. Becca Levy’s groundbreaking research into ageing, as detailed in Breaking The Age Code, sheds light on a remarkable discovery – the key to improved physical and cognitive performance, as well as longer life spans, lies not in medical interventions but in our thoughts and beliefs, particularly regarding ageism. This aligns with the findings of […]

I am every age I have ever been. (Madeleine L’Engle)

I’ve come across this quote twice recently, it’s from Madeleine L’Engle. Whilst it has some impact when younger, as we age, we can look back at differing times in our lives, choices we made, or didn’t make. Regrets for things done and not done. Remember the joy you felt as a child – lazing in […]

The young olds

In my book – Rethinking Retirement for Positive Ageing, I write about the young olds – the yolds. The name is generally credited to Gerontologist Bernice Neugarten who come up with the idea of the young-old, in the 1970s, to refer to people aged 65-75. We are in the peak age range of the yolds, the […]

The Valuable Time of Maturity

With age, comes, for me, a greater interest in and appreciation of poetry. I hope you enjoy reflecting on this by Mario de Andrade I counted my years and realized that I have less time to live by, than I have lived so far. I have more past than future. I feel like that boy […]

Maybe we don’t get happier as we age?

There’s a lot written about the U shape happiness curve, how happiness drops in adulthood, is at the lowest in our 40s, (it will often drop with work and family demands). Then the curve rises as we move into our 50s and 60s. But how true is this when you look deeper at the data? […]

Getting Over Your Embarrassment at the Doctors: A Mini Guide

A lot of people experience feelings of anxiety around attending a doctor’s appointment, and it could be for a myriad of reasons, although one of the most common is feeling embarrassed. Regardless of your personal feelings, going to the doctor is important in order to ensure that you are as healthy and happy as you […]

Why do some people age better and live longer than others?

Remarkable research by Dr Becca Levy, published in Breaking The Age Code reveals the answers. And it’s not medical. So much is around how we think, and supports what I found in my doctoral research. It’s about our thoughts and beliefs, particularly about ageism If we have positive perceptions of ageing we are more likely […]