By Keren Brown Wilson

Many are talking about the makeover of various Portland neighborhoods, including the Concordia community and surrounding areas. I leave that discussion for others. I want to talk about changes that occur when we age, and about how we react.

As someone who has worked with and on behalf of older adults for the past 40 years, I have observed many changes in myself, my family and my friends. Many of these occurred slowly. Some are relatively minor, such as changes in hair color and body shape, or decreases in hearing and eyesight. Others are more significant, like limitations in mobility and chronic conditions such as diabetes and blood pressure. And we note our forgetfulness with a certain anxiety in case it is a sign of dementia.

Then there are the social, psychological and economic changes. Our networks change as we lose friends, stop working, or limit our external activities for various reasons. We might experience the loss of a spouse or siblings. Children grow up and create their own lives. If school, raising a family and work occupied a large part of our lives, then who are we when that is in our past? Often our mentality shifts to conserving our personal and financial resources. Sometimes the response to these changes is to hunker down, avoid others and look inward.

Clearly maintaining good health, having opportunities to interact with others and being economically secure make it easier to age successfully. But there’s one strategy that does not require good health, a large social circle or money. It’s having purpose.

Purpose can take many forms, such as volunteering for an organization, taking care of grandchildren, caring for a pet, learning a new skill or becoming more knowledgeable about one’s religion. The question to ask oneself regularly is, “What gives my life purpose?” If the answer is “nothing,”then it is time to give some thought to what could bring purpose into your life.

We plan around our purpose, organize our lives around it and use it as a method to remain engaged in ways important to us physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally.

If you feel you have no purpose – and don’t know what it is – ask yourself this one important question, “What would motivate me to act?”

Keren Brown Wilson, Ph.D., is president of the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation. Based in Clackamas, the nonprofit helps elders live full lives with dignity. Its strategies focus on bridging the gap for elders, families, and communities throughout the United States and around the globe. Contact her at 503.408-4088 or kwilson@jfrfoundation.org, or visit the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation website.

By Kim Magraw

Although the human brain may soon be outsmarted by the computer, at present the brain is the most sophisticated and intricate machine we know of in the universe.

One of its most marvelous functions is automation. Once we’ve learned something handy – like turning our head, walking, juggling, typing, talking, driving or playing an instrument – our brain can put these activities on autopilot so we can focus our attention on some other activity.

But what happens when one of these programmed activities is unhelpful in a situation? For example, we move to a place where cars are driven on the other side of the road? Or we’re accustomed to speaking English and we move to a country where the language and sentence structure is completely different? Or we got a lot of attention from our parents by whining when we were young, but somehow all that whining doesn’t serve us at a later age?

When these preprogrammed habits are serving us, we are in a groove. When they don’t, we might think we’re stuck in a rut – a behavior that is really difficult to unlearn.

A trick is to have some tools to get us out of a rut. It turns out that a great first step is awareness. We quickly become aware when we’re driving on the wrong side of the road because that’s obvious. But a whiny attitude may be less easy to identify in ourselves.

After awareness, we can set the stage to bust out of a rut by putting some parameters in place:

• Urgency: “I’d better get in the other lane or I’ll hit this oncoming car.”
• Fascination: “This person seems so interesting, but she doesn’t speak a word ofEnglish.”
• Focus: “I’m going to find a quiet space for two hours to practice my mandolin.”

Yes, automation is an amazing adaptation. Better yet, and more uniquely human, is plasticity –the ability to change and adapt, no matter how deep and rutted our groove may be.

Kim Magraw, a licensed massage therapist, may be reached via the ConcordiaMassagePros.com directory.