You’ve just celebrated a milestone birthday…for most of our Viva 70 readers that’s men and women over 50. Do you think about how your next decade may be different? Do you imagine what life story you would like to create for your next decade? Do you read books about transition to an older age, keeping healthy, fit and the quality of life you want to create? Do you make plans, revise bucket lists, do a financial stock-take?

Learning as the cliche says, is life long and I decided to check out the books currently available in one of Melbourne’s biggest book stores. I’m looking for books about ageing well in later years. Anything that specifically mentions Boomers, elders, ageing or, …. because the offerings are thin……longer life. There are about 25 books on the motivation and personal development shelves. There are many more books in the Health section specifically dealing with dementia, grief and loss, brain function, stroke, arthritis, and other diseases of older age. In this bookshop ageing is clearly associated with illness and loss. And it can be, but ageing is so much more and there is little being written about a well crafted quality ageing process. Ageing is not living as we lived in our 50’s and waiting for bad things to happen. (arthritis, dementia, death!)

Among the 25 books about ageing in later, life here are just two that I found useful, interesting, informative or simply intriguing. I’ve also included a video clip of the author talking about her ideas.

Ashton Applewhite challenges the discrimination some older people feel because of ageist stereotypes being prevalent in society. She discusses access to work and jobs. Here’s an interview with her.

If you haven’t heard of Suzi Grant with her blog called Alternative Ageing, check it out.. Suzi is a UK based nutritionist and she writes also about fashion. She’s energetic, funny, a great communicator and some years ago wrote a wonderful book called Alternative Ageing!

Here’s a clip of Suzi talking about a natural way of staying healthy in older age.

In a world of podcasts, Youtube and blogging there’s lots of information out there about ageing well and living fully in our later years. If you have any favourite resources please share these with our VIVA community. here are some other books that may be useful to you…