Hiding the Introvert

Yes, I think I'm an introvert. I'd rather be at home on the couch with my dog or in my studio with my dog making art. Or writing.

However, there's this thing in life called money that seems to be a necessity unless you want to live in a shack in the woods. But then you'd still have to eat and have medical care and buy stuff to wash with and clothes to wear so we do need that thing called money.

Which means we have to be out in the world doing stuff and taking care of those basics. Even the introvert needs to get out and take care of life. If there are people counting on you then it's pull up those big girl pants and just get it done.

Some days it's easier. Some days it's not. But it's always exhausting.

For an Introvert to be "on" all the time takes a lot of energy. When it's over and they get to go home it's all they can do to hold their head up and not just collapse. Mentally and physically spend. The well is dry. It's time to recharge.

How does an introvert recharge? They go to their safe place, their happy place. Could be turning on the TV and zoning out on a favorite show or pulling out that favorite hobby and putting all their attention into it. Maybe they take a hot bath or just a nap. Each has their own way of coming down to normal again and, if you live with that introvert long enough, you'll see it.

How do you handle that introvert hiding in their safe place? How do you draw them out? Easy answer. You don't. Leave them be and let them recharge, clear their head and come back when they're ready.

                                          Sign me,
                                                    Introvert on the inside

Sixty the New Forty?

Could sixty be the new forty? Are people more in-sync with a healthier lifestyle that they eat better, stay active, and get medical care? Could be.

Turn on any morning talk show and half the time you find some doctor talking about the best way to do things. Eat your veggies, walk, drink water. All of this wasn't on our parent's radar when they hit sixty. The information highway has brought this info to us in a constant stream. TV, radio, and of course the computers. (Which are now inside our phones.)

So, yes. Sixty could be the new forty.

Sure I feel a little stiffer in my joints. I've got arthritis in my neck and shoulder from a car accident, and that extra weight doesn't seem as easy to lose as it used to be. But I can still walk a mile, lift weights and work. I think back to my mom at this age and she was already disabled and collecting disability. She had hip and artery problems which I think now were misdiagnosed.  Something we'll never know for sure. She hadn't been working for a few years by this age.

I see friends my own age that are in pretty good shape, too. Some have bigger health challenges but the information that's out there is helping them. They have more places to turn to than just their doctor. They were exposed to a time when new discoveries in medicine surprised us all. Vitamins, vaccines, food values, healthier sweeteners, the list goes on.

So someone tell me, how do we make Seventy be the new forty?