 Hi, Adam Navas here with Liz Wade. Hello, Liz. Hi, Adam. Today we are going to be having a real conversation about the Spotlight Program. Five tips for growing old better. If you haven't had a chance to read the program or listen to the program, you can visit our website where you can listen and read along, or you can find it here on YouTube, or listen to it where you get your podcasts. You can also listen to it in an advanced version if you want to challenge yourself or if you're ready for that. And so all those links will be below the video. Make sure you check those out if you haven't listened to the program already. If you have, and maybe this is your first time, this is our conversation program. We have our classic program, which is very slow. We have our advanced program, which is that same content, but a little faster. And then we have this conversation program, which is where Liz and I are talking about the topic of the program. So before we dive in, Liz, can you give us a summary about what is five tips for growing old better all about? I would love to, Adam. First, I want to say that this is the final program in our Tips for Healthy Living series. So of course, we started this series with how to have a healthy pregnancy, then we went on to a healthy child's first year, and then some tips for healthy childhood, and then tips for healthy teens, and then we just had tips for like a healthy adult life in recovering from injury, and then here we are at the end of life, growing older. So we are past like real, we're past like children and getting to the really late years. Those are going to be in a playlist, correct? Oh, they are in a playlist, yes. So they're already there and you can check out all of those programs in order, or you can check out this one and go backwards, I don't know, like Benjamin Button. But I did want to say that this is the end of this series, and so we have been running this series for a while, and I hope that that is really helpful really to cover any area of life that you're in. So this program is about really those later years and growing old better and making those last years count. And it starts with a story of probably a woman our age who is watching her mother get older and then begins to suffer from dementia, which we also have a different program about, but so she's having trouble remembering things, and how would you describe that, Adam? I'm not doing a very good job at describing. You can't do the things that you normally would do for yourself. So this woman is watching her mother grow old and she decides for herself that she is going to do the best job growing old that she can so that she stays healthy longer. So I think that's a thing that a lot of people think about honestly, maybe seeing their parents age and are they able to do fewer and fewer things. So this program then goes through five tips and explains them a little bit and how you can use those five tips. So the first tip is a really simple one, and I think honestly as I was going through this program, I think this was in every single healthy living program. So the first tip is to drink enough water. Yeah, there you go, Adam. See, you're starting to be your healthy oldest self right now. Well, it is amazing when you, I think getting enough sleep and drinking enough water are like unequivocal goods. They will not hurt you. You might have to use the bathroom a little more, but those are two things that are just always good. Right, exactly. Well, and something I learned in this program is that when you are older, because of course your body is made up of so much water. It's something like 65 or 70% water that is in between your cells and in your blood and blah, blah, blah. But as you get older, then the water, there's less water in you. Maybe that's where wrinkles come from. Do you think so? I don't know. I've got plenty of wrinkles even when I'm drunk enough water. See, I'm drinking water right now. And that older people don't feel as thirsty. So there's two things going against you. You don't have as much water in your body. And also, you just don't have the urge to drink as much. Right. Well, and the second tip kind of could work against the first tip. So the second tip is to spend time outside. I mean, if it's a very hot day, you might need to drink even more water. But that's not exactly what this tip is about. There's been research that shows that it helps people to stay active to keep their bodies healthy. But it also just being out among trees and fresh air, those things have a remarkable effect on people's health and happiness. I think for you and I who've maybe had to spend more time inside because of the 2020 pandemic, we definitely know that getting outside is good for your health. Well, and I think even I have been hearing stories of how even older people who in the States, it's very common for older people to live in an old folks home, you might say, or a nursing home where they maybe have their own room, but other people take care of them, nurses and things. And since the pandemic, when they weren't allowed to go outside, actually many more older people died even from just loneliness or not being able to go outside their rooms or experience the outside. That alone I think is a good example of how going outside, even if it's just, even if you can't move, maybe just having your wheelchair outside in the fresh air and a little bit of sun because you don't want too much sun, right? But being outside and just listening to the birds and maybe the breeze rustling through the tree leaves, that that is really important. So I think that was a really interesting one that you don't even have to be on your bicycle, going 10 miles a day or whatever. You can just be sitting outside. Yeah, just being outside is valuable. Yeah. Okay, so the third tip was thinking about the past in a healthy way. And so that one I think is a little bit tricky, especially for, well I will say, I tend to have maybe a more negative way of thinking. I may be more of a pessimist. So I have a hard time thinking, wow that was a good thing that happened or in the future good things are going to happen. So I think the advice in this program is to be able to look back at the things that you did in life and know that you did the best you could or the most you could. And so then you can look at your life with a fullness knowing that you didn't have a lot of regrets. Right, I think that's 100% correct because it's not no one gets to live the exact life that they want. No. And even if they do, they could reach old age and be like, no that wasn't what I expected. But I think what they're trying to get at with this point is how do you look back on your life and make meaning? How do you connect the pieces? Even those pieces that weren't good to give meaning to the overall life that you've lived. And I think that's something that you can do at any age. Yes. But you could also come back and if you can't find that meaning, if you can't make that meaning, you kind of get those regrets and that despair, right? Yeah. Okay, so I will tell you, I read an amazing, this is how you know this is a real conversation because Adam doesn't know what I'm about to say. I rarely do, Liz. I read an amazing Twitter thread this morning about, it was an obituary about a very old lady who died. So an obituary is just an announcement of a person's death. And she was, in her younger days, she was a very rich young woman whose father founded like Pacific North Gas Company or something like that. So she was very rich. And then she had this great life on boats and parties. Could do whatever she wanted. Yeah, she got married very young and she had 10 kids between like age 20 and maybe like 30. And then at age 60, and also she would, I mean, she would take her families on elaborate vacations. They owned an island. They would take a boat there. They would travel to Vienna for the week or whatever. Again, very lavish lifestyle. She did whatever she wanted. She was very headstrong. She decided for her 60th birthday that she was going to become a nun. And so when she became a nun, she joined a group of nuns who like live in their building, their nunnery or wherever. And they don't have a lot of possessions. No. She had gave up every possession she had. She could not touch anyone in her family ever again. Like she lived in this, she could, she only talks for like half an hour a day. Otherwise she's silent and praying most days. Wow. She sleeps on, slept on a bed, was just a piece of wood with a very thin mattress. She didn't have any possessions. And that to me, so she was describing why she did this to her children. Like, and she told them, I lived my first 30 years for me. I lived my next 30 years for you. And then I lived my last 30 years for God. I don't remember what exactly she said or for faith. Yeah. And so, or for other people. But this to me, why would, it was such an interesting question, right? Because she's near the end of her life. She did die just recently at that convent. That's what it's called a convent. Yeah. As this nun who had never touched any of her 12 grandchildren, had only had never, you know, like in the last 30 or 40 years that she was there, had never touched any of her children. She never, you know, she didn't get to go on these vacations or do any of these things anymore. It makes me, you know, thinking about this program and about regret. Are there regrets in her life? Like, did she regret maybe her first years? Did she decide to live those last 30 years at the convent because she regretted all of that lavish spending? Maybe life is just choosing your regrets. Yeah. Right? Like, you can work, work and make a lot of money, but you miss out with your family or you can spend time with your family and not have as much money. And maybe we all have some kind of regret about what could have been. Yeah. So anyway, maybe you don't have to make as bold or strong of a choice as this lady where you just, you know, give up all family contact. But yeah, looking at your life as a whole and doing what you love or doing what... Yeah. I would encourage, if anybody has left their family and joined a convent, please put a comment in the... I don't think it's a common story, Adam. I'm sure that if they have abandoned their family, they're probably not readily spending a lot of time on YouTube. No. All right, sorry. We can move on to our next tip. So tip number four is give to your community, which of course could be you've worked and you have a lot of money and you want to donate money to those places in your community that you care about. And of course, your community can be the people around you, but it could be a worthy cause all the way around the world, right? Right. But you can also give your knowledge. You've learned a lot of things about whatever you happen to have learned about. It'll be different for you and me and everybody who's watching. But you can use those and give them to, you know, give that wisdom to your grandchildren or you can invest in helping out in a community center or helping out if maybe you've had a business. I don't know. It can be any number of ways. You have to think of it yourself. Yeah, I know there are lots of older people, right, who continue to give to the community by volunteering. I know that here in our city, there was a big vaccination clinic where many older people, they maybe didn't have something to do during the day and they would volunteer their time at the clinic. Right. So they would, you know, volunteer their time and make sure that people here were vaccinated. So yeah, there's lots of ways that you can get back. Yeah. And that also helps you make meaning to your life. Yes. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And get you outside. Okay. And get you outside and maybe if you drink a bottle of water, you can do... And do it with other people, right? Right. So it's not just the beauty of nature but connecting with other people. Exactly. So our final tip was the one I thought that was the most interesting and that is to keep learning and not only to just keep learning by, I don't know, picking up a book or whatever, but it's the act of choosing to learn new things, right? Right. Because it's very easy even for younger people, for teens, for everybody to fall into a pattern, right? You maybe eat the same thing every day. You go to the same places. You read the same things. All of that consistency can give people a sense of comfort. But it also can mean that you're not learning new things. You're only in your pattern. And so I thought it was an interesting thing to choose to learn new things as a way to keep your mind fresh. Yeah. There's no reason to stop learning and growing, right? Just because you reach a certain number of years, number of candles on your birthday cake doesn't mean you're like, okay, I'm done. Right. So no matter how old you are, you can keep discovering things about the world. Yeah. There was a great quote in the program, which I did want to read. Because sometimes I like to share. I don't remember who said the quote. Anderson. Somebody Anderson. I should have prepared this a little bit better. But I think it's a she. She says, one of the best ways to stay active as you get older is to always choose to learn new things. The least interesting older people I know are those who find a comfortable place and stop. And I'm sure we all know people like that. Like maybe a grandparent who has, you know, kind of maybe grumpy and they're like, no, I like this TV show or I like this bench in the park or whatever. And I don't want to do anything different. She says, they do the same things. They have the same conversations. They express the same opinions. Choose to learn something totally new every week or every month. There is nothing like being bad at something to wake you up and shake you out of your understanding. And when you start to get good at it, it can make you feel as excited as a six year old. So I thought that was interesting to be like, to try to be bad at something. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, I'll bet you do. I'm a big fan of learning and being bad. I was just explaining to my son the other day that you have to do things three times before you can do it. Like you have to make it. They have to make it again and they have to make it again because nobody's good at things the first time. Yeah. So I would go ahead. I was going to say I tell my kids the same thing in a different way. I, you know, they'll say, well, I'm not good at that or I can't do that. And I always say, how do you get better at something? And then they're like, practice. You got to do it bad about a few times. Yeah, you got to keep learning. So I would encourage if you're, maybe you're not an old person watching this and you think, well, this doesn't apply to me. That does. So what do you, besides English, write in the comments what you are learning or what you would be, what is that thing that you maybe haven't even started learning but you would be really bad at? Like what do you wish you would learn and put a comment in here or you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter and do the same thing there. If you haven't visited our website, which is spotlightenglish.com, please do that. There's a lot of great resources there that aren't on YouTube. You can follow along. We got some pictures. It's a lot of fun. And of course, make sure you like and subscribe to this video. We have a lot of content. It's very easy to, to miss a video and we don't want you to do that. And yeah, join us for our next video and yeah, join us for our next real conversation. And until then, just keep listening, watch, practice and learn. Spotlight out.