Mission

This website is designed to serve as a forum for the exploration of freedom in the process of aging, regardless of your age. Freedom implies the liberty to make choices that impact quality of life and overall sense of meaning and purpose. It is the freedom to realize your true self. Self knowledge is a key factor in making healthy decisions about your future. This website aims to facilitate self exploration and provide information that inspires the psychological quest for healthy and happy living as you age.

Dr. Nora Infante

Introduction

At a time of unprecedented health care costs, the future looks daunting in terms of assuring funds will be available to meet our health care needs as we age. The upside is our health care needs are not entirely out of our hands. Advances are made daily in the area of preventative medicine. We know much more about the impact of nutrition and exercise on our longevity than we did even ten years ago. What we are also learning is that optimal health depends not only on genetic history, but depends on an individual’s behavior and attitudes towards one’s self and one’s bodies. What good is preventative medicine if it is not put to active use? In other words, actions speak louder than words. But why is it so hard to do what you know is good for you? This is the challenge this website seeks to address.

There is no doubt aging comes with its challenges, emotional, physical, social and spiritual. When we are young it seems impossible to imagine the experience of aging. In middle life we become more aware of the process rather than its looming presence and often deny the fact of aging through distracting behaviors and an elaborate system of psychological defenses. In a culture that reveres youth and activity, it is easy to understand why most choose not to look forward to old age. Whether you are 15 or 50, old age is not typically the territory of future hope and fantasy. It falls on us to convince ourselves, each other, and future generations, that old age can be a time of happiness, and deep fulfillment. It is not about having the answers, or being free of suffering. It is about modeling an enthusiasm and dedication to the pursuit of meaning and freedom, throughout the life span. This would be a radical and revolutionary act. It has the potential to change our social, political and medical system in dramatic ways. It has the potential to create richer and healthier lives for all ages.

So the question; why is it so hard to do what you know is good for you? There are clues that help explain how one person ends up healthy and happy in later life versus unhealthy and depressed. Genetic predisposition can’t be negated. However, it is important to distinguish between “illness” and feeling “sick.” Arthritis can be a physically and emotionally crippling disease; and yet individual response to the disease is greatly varied. Some may experience it as an inconvenience while for others it can be the cause of major depression and greatly compromised quality of life. Surely we all know people who cope better than others with life’s challenges. Old age is rarely getting what you want, therefore it makes sense to devote time and attention to your individual coping style.

Positive experience in aging is a real option. Good self-care, high morale, intimate friendship and mental health allow one to live fully irrespective of limitations imposed by aging. Positive aging is not the avoidance of physical decay, and certainly is not about the avoidance of death. It is about making the most of the time you have, of the life you have. It is about finding freedom, no matter what your circumstance. It is about the freedom to realize your true self.