Barbara M. Morris

Barbara Morris is a pharmacist whose mission is to help midlife and younger women keep current youthful goodies for another 25 years . . . at least. To that end she publishes a content-rich monthly newsletter and coaches women in lifestyle management.

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The older I get the more I realize that women experience a lot of premature decline because of the culture and outdated traditions. Advanced chronological age and decline are not necessarily related.

Before enactment of Social Security in the thirties,retirement as it is today did not exist. One reason is that most people didn't live much beyone age 65. Today the lifespan has increased by 30 years and and along with it, a "retirement culture" has developed. While retirement is something most people look forward to, unless there is growth and productivity in the retirement years, there is premature decline. The old cliche, "Use it or lose it" applies. The human mind and body do not do well when not consistently challenged. The traditional retirement lifestyle does not support the amount and type of challenge needed to stay strong and delay decline.

This is something women near retirement need to think about before they close the door on their worklife. They need to make a post retirement lifestyle decision while they are still working. This is important because once retired, there is a "honeymoon phase" that lasts about two years or until money runs out or health issues surface. At that point, it's too late to think about what you want to do with the rest of your life, which may be another 30 years.

After just a couple of years in retirement, your mind and body change in negative ways so subtle that you are not aware of what's happening. The key to controlling that subtle change is to constantly monitor your mindset and lifestyle. That means, live your life the way you choose, not the way tradition, your friends or family think you should. Avoiding premature decline takes effort and living outside of the the "senior mindset and lifestyle box" is not easy but absolutely possible. The "how to do it" is what I focus on in my books.