Hello Friend!
It has been two years since I lost my mother. She lived with me for the last 13 years of her life so it has been an adjustment being without her.
One of the things she did is teach me how to grow old with grace. At 92 she was just a spark plug of a person that was as sweet as you can imagine.
I shared this article last year and since we have so many new readers since then I thought it was time to revisit it.
I found George Vaillant, author of Aging Well, did a long-term Study of Adult Development (2002) to suggest six traits for growing old with grace.
Guess what? My mom routinely followed five of these six!
Be Well,
Anisa
So what are the traits the study identified for growing old with grace?
- Caring about others and remaining open to new ideas
- Showing cheerful tolerance of the indignities of old age
- Maintaining hope.
- Maintaining a sense of humor and capacity for play
- Taking sustenance from past accomplishments while remaining curious and continuing to learn from the next generation
- Maintaining contact and intimacy with friends and family
In Closing…
You may not be able to do all of them, but if you can open up your heart and mind most of these are easily achievable and we will be on our way to growing old with grace!
And the one my mom didn’t do? Number 6 because her closest friends and her dear sisters had passed away a long time ago.
However she did remain very close to, obviously me, as well as my brother who lives next door!