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Kate Blake

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The Impact of ‘Aging’!

Open to ALL ages, as we are aging from the moment we are born!

Please share your emotions and views of the aging process ... relate it back to family members or movie stars ... just connect with how aging impacts on you personally?

The physical mental emotional and psychosocial implications ... from grey hair and wrinkles; to illnesses such as cancer or Alzheimer’s; to loss of career and income ....

Does it bring up fear, panic, insecurities or excitement?

What are some the challenges and the pluses as we age [mature]?

Related Talks:
Topics: aging challenges grey power
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Closing Statement from Kate Blake

Thanks everyone for your contributions, and especially to TED for the forum.

Cheyenne if you truly have patience then all this will come in its own time ... it's exciting to see how it unfolds!

In summary we all, those of us who admit our aging process, are comfortable and find plenty of positives in this part of life. Just go with the flow and it can be a truly wondrous life!

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    Cheyenne Lin

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    Aug 24 2011: I'm afraid to grow up. I remember I wanted to so badly only a year ago but now that my high school career is ending I'm becoming more and more stressed. The pressures for good grades, acquiring tutoring, scholarships, great SAT scores, and staying fit are all running through my mind all the time. I want it all to stop but I can't help myself from getting overwhelmed. In addition what will I do if I don't make it into college, what will happen after college, and will I ever be able to obtain a partner, house and car? What about a family? What about my health, safety, and starting my own business? I don't know how adults do it.
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    robert richards

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    Aug 23 2011: I think the real effect of aging is in the different ways our brains works. I have always been a rather reflective soul but I have noticed an extensive ramp-up of that particular facet of my personality as I have grown older. I have put some thought into it and now consider energy levels to be the most likely culprit. I look at my young children who cannot control the amount of sheer energy that is literally bursting out of them, then (on a parenting side note) we older, drained vessels demand that they quiet down, be less boisterous and act more like us LOL! No wonder they can’t understand us, they are running on star power  So, (getting back on topic) energy levels drain, our mind adjusts or rewires itself to cope with less power, no more action right here right now! More of reflecting on the experiences we have had, are having and or could have. No more… let’s just go and see what happens, more of… let’s just consider all the data available. It’s just possible this may explain why very old individuals often mentally revert back to children; maybe it is all it can sustain with a lack of energy for the older brain.
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    Salim Solaiman 50+

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    Aug 18 2011: Seeing your topic , one folk song of my country is going on and on in my memory so trying to translate that

    erveryone says day by day we are aging
    That's opposite I say, running towards ending

  • Michael M 30+

    • +1
    Aug 17 2011: Kate
    Right now I am looking at aging more as a chance to be complete as a person. I haven't had all this experience for nothing. I feel there are avenues just opening up. I am trying not to consider it as the "end of the road" but a new road opening up. I am not afraid of it.
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    lynn eschbach 30+

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    Aug 17 2011: I've noticed that time becomes squished. The 'real' past is, let's say, one year ago though I've lived for more than half a century. I can no longer relate to me as a child though I still have fond memories. I can no longer relate to me as a young mother and so on.

    The future also closes in. I've begun to 'feel' the temporary nature of life: it could be me. And that's O.K . Though I imagine Aubrey de Grey would yell, "Do not go gentle into that good night!".

    A cool upside to aging is the significant uptick in the NOW factor. Coupled with less concern for 'who am I', it's liberating.

    And this, Kate, has been my experience thus far.
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      Kate Blake 10+

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      Aug 17 2011: Agree about the time factor Lynn ... as a child Christmas seemed such a long time coming, now it comes all too quickly. 50 seems to be the age where we know we are on the downhill run ... we can no longer pretend 'death' wont happen. Our parents are dying, etc ... we are next.

      But you're right about that feeling of liberation or freedom - had a great aunt live to 98 and boy did she play on that one! And we all loved it.
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