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BABY BOOMER WOMEN

JUST IN: NEWS FROM BABY BOOMER-MAGAZINE.COM

Baby Boomer Lynda Carter (image courtesy magmire.com)

Clara Freeman, a nurse/ columnist/ freelance writer, posted “5 Ways Baby Boomers can Jumpstart Our Second-Phase Of Life.”

Ms Freeman writes ideas for men and women, but her focus is on women.

Men, just feel glad you were included at all.

Freeman says your mid-life crisis, if you have one, can be “assuaged with the purchase of a new set of wheels, by a much needed vacation, or even an occasional night out with the guys.”

You’re covered three ways, so what are the other “5 Ways?”

They include: Accentuate the Positive, Tap into your Family and Friend Support Base, ‘Doubt the Fear’, Dare to Dream!, and Know that you are Productive.

The photo accompanying the article shows an attractive couple riding bikes without helmets.

They won’t have a successful second-phase of life if they crash on their head.

With all the news about head trauma and CTE, a helmet is a good idea.

What would Boomer Parent say to their kid, the one they hounded to wear a helmet, if they remind mom and dad to strap on a brain bucket?

“Oh, honey, we’re not going fast. You worry too much.”

A fall from bike riding height is about five feet standing still. Five feet is enough to give a concussion, a separated shoulder, and a broken collar bone. Add road rash if you’re actually moving.

No one looks forward to seeing their parents banged up and disfigured in a hospital. Now the five ways to jumpstart your second life phase.

  • Baby boomer women should accentuate the positive even in the crushing news from Dr.Dana King from the West Virginia University School of  Medicine:

“You live longer, but those extra years you  bought – you’re sick,” he told Reuters Health.

What kind of sick? Diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure. He reports that twice as many boomers walk with a cane or walker than the previous generation.

Stay positive, it’s in there someplace.

  • Tapping into your family and friend support base, after ignoring them for decades, is tricky. They’ll either see you as needy, or working your multi-level marketing magic for Amway.

Boomer women do it better than boomer men who have a bad habit of telling friends and family to shove off.

Stay positive.

  • Doubt the Fear? Freeman cites motivational speaker Guy Finley who says doubting the fear of not knowing where life leads is a way of rendering the fear powerless.

Boomer women know the fear. They talk about being invisible, loss of identity, dropping out of the mainstream.

Boomer men know the fear, too, but they keep it at bay with beer. After a socially acceptable number of cold ones, the doubt recedes, they notice their wives, and they want to ride a bike instead of more fear talk.

  • Daring to dream is a tough one. Clara says: “Baby Boomer Women have been so busy during their first phase of life by literally being all things for everyone else, other than themselves – mothers, daughters, wives, co-workers, friends, chauffeurs, cooks, busy, multitasking women… Now it’s your time to shine. Find out what make you happy and set out to follow your dream. It’s no longer ‘a man’s world’.”

Boomerpdx takes a different path here. There’s too much left undone for women to shine full time. Glass ceiling, pay inequity, gender bias, the war on reproductive rights. Portland boomer women are not done, which leads to,

  • Know that you are Productive. If boomer men and women follow Clara Freeman’s advice and stay positive, stay in touch, remain fearless, and dream big, they’ll be okay.

If they give in to invisibility, rejection, and the feeling that someone, somewhere, is living the life they planned, then it’s time to fight.

The next thing you’ll hear is the bell for Round One of Boomer Life.

Start by taking a walk with a friend.

About David Gillaspie

I am a writer. This is my blog story day by day.