Does it feel different? Of course not. Why do we think we will wake up the next morning and everything will be different?

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I still have a wonderful water view, good health, a great family, a supportive community, many friends, a thriving business and a great hairdresser. 

Do I have a secret to health and happiness? Nope.  

Have I learned how to be more productive? Nope

Do I still have times of depression? Yup

And yet I continue on.

What are some tactics that help?

Gratitude practice/morning practice

This may be the single most important thing I do to keep it all together. For a while I was listing six gratitudes every day on Facebook. Six. Don’t stop at five. Sometimes I write in a journal, at this time I am trying out a digital diary/planner. I am not sure if that will be my go to. I’ve had some frustrations with my work disappearing and other technical details. A paper notebook is good but I cannot read my handwriting and I don’t always have the journal with me. On my desk I currently have:

• Bullet Journal
• Miracle Morning
• Five minute journal
• Elisi (a digital planner)

I seem to be using a combination of all. Maybe that’s OK 

Exercise

I’ve heard that helps, I say somewhat jokingly. I try to walk every day. Emphasis on the try. I am so proud of my daughter who has achieved a mile a day for 116 days.  I’m not there yet.  I do go to Pilates twice a week and a physical therapist once a week. My understanding is we need to just keep moving the body.  

Brain Health

According to Sanjay Gupta in his book Stay Strong, the most important thing you can do for your brain is exercise. Doesn’t take a lot but get that heart rate up several times a day. 

I am also convinced that those of us who continue our work beyond “retirement” maintain better brain health.

Have Young Friends

This may seem to be counterintuitive.  Don’t you want to have older friends so you look younger by comparison?  I don’t think so. My younger friends keep me current and relevant. There may be a lot of reasons my friends are younger. I’m not opposed to having older friends but I just don’t.  I won’t wear old lady shoes but I do seem to have some leisure suits that scream Golden Girls.

Stay current

It really bothers me when people tell me they never read the news. Have you heard the saying “those who refuse to learn history are condemned to repeat it?”  Head in the sand won’t solve the problems I opened with above.  There are people working on solutions. Support those people if you can’t be one of then yourself. But don’t ignore them. 

And those are my observations of the day after. Stay tuned for more.