For many of us who have spent a lifetime sitting in front of a computer  all day it is not necessarily a given that we can do these simple motions.  Our hamstrings have shortened and our upper backs have tightened.

If you can’t, you might be thinking “So what?” or “Why are you asking?“ I’m bringing it up because being flexible enough to touch your toes is a key skill if you want to maintain your independence and personal dignity as you age.

My mother made it to her 92 birthday and was fortunate enough to live most of her life in excellent health. At 88 she started to experience set-backs and she spent her last years in a series of assisted living and nursing homes.  I visited her daily so I had a lot of opportunity to observe numerous elders and their respective experiences.

One of the keys to being able to maintain your dignity is to be able to dress yourself.  This means being able to bend over and get clothes out of low drawers, shoes off the floor, pulling on your own socks and pants and tying your own shoes.

Right now you might think – get real – I won’t have trouble with that – but guess what?  If you are having trouble touching the floor today you are not going to be more flexible when you’re older unless you start to do something about it now.

With our bodies, it’s use it or lose it, and you might be experiencing the beginning of your loss process now.  If you want to be physically fit over 50, the good news is that it is never too late to start to do something about this.

Douglas Schrift of http://www.eldergym.com/ has put together a nice 100 page free e-book of exercises complete with programs and log to help you get started.

If you still think you’re twenty-eight and not your true chronological age you might not relate to the real life women he uses to illustrate his manual but I encourage you to get past the fact that they are not magazine air-brushed models and follow their examples. If you have been staying fit over the years and these exercises are not challenging enough, by all means, keep doing what you’re doing just make sure you pay attention to your strength and flexibility.

Everyone can benefit from gentle stretches every day that will reawaken your body and put you in a great position to age well with grace and flexibility!

Retirement is often thought of as a reward for dutifully working day-by-day, year-after-year.  As you sit idling in commuter traffic thinking about your to-do list that never ends — you probably say to yourself ”I can’t wait until I’m retired and don’t have to do this anymore…”

It’s true, when you are retired you won’t have to set the alarm, wear your work clothes, commute, and finish all your myriad of tasks at work, but working is never all bad.  What are the other things that you enjoy that you will lose when you leave your job?

You may be losing your personal identity.  How often do you meet someone new in a social setting and quickly let them know what it is you do for work?  Many people are so invested in their work, especially if they have been successful at it, that they think of themselves as their job.  Are you, or were you, a doctor, a lawyer, a business owner, director, manager, or vice president?  Did people jump when you made a request?

When you leave a position of power you also frequently leave your power behind.  It can be very disheartening to move from a position of power and authority to being “just another person.” When you are used to being respected for your role it can come as a shock when people act dismissively toward you when they discover you’re retired.

Learning how to let go of who you were and learning how to craft a new definition of yourself is key if you want to fully engage in this next stage of life. Not letting go — trying to live in the past — is sad and when done to the extreme makes you seem boring and you might become an object of pity to those around you who are living in the present.

If possible, as you near retirement, start consciously adding more to your life than just work. Move away from defining yourself by what you do, instead try to figure out who you are as a unique person.

This is not necessarily an easy thing to do.  It can take time and requires some self-introspection before you can develop and become comfortable with a new self-definition.  While the “doing” part of you is important, this process is more about focusing on the “being” part of you.

Ask yourself: What do you value?  What are your strengths?  What do you care deeply about?  And how do you reflect your uniqueness in the world? Answer these questions and you will be well on your way to being able to share who you really are with the world.