Financially preparing for senior years

Blessed are those senior citizens with loving, thoughtful children and grandchildren who give them allowance for their subsistence and quality life. Millions of Filipino families live from the salaries of the OFWs and presumably more senior citizens are dependent on others for their subsistence.

The advice I could give is that when the adults begin to work, they should put aside portion of their income for their subsistence.

The advice I could give is that when the adults begin to work, they should put aside a portion of their income. The pension should put aside a portion of their income for their retirement. The pension should be augmented by the savings. The retiree squandering the retirement fund commits a blunder which may be equated to the loss of self-esteem of the retiree.

Hospitalization cost is prohibitive. An ordinary senior citizen could not afford it, this is the time when the members of the family could pool their resources together to help.

Auto-suggestion to Still the Heart and Mind
The faithfulness to the implementation of the Vatican council II exhortation put so much stress on the administration and faculty of the school where I was connected before. Hence, the school taught us several coping mechanism on dealing with stress and conflict.

One of these is auto-suggestion.

I brought myself twice to the hospital because of strong and erratic heart palpitations. I know many emotional occasions are likely to come and therefore, I could endanger myself many times.

Psychology and guidance students and practitioner are familiar with this.

First, the person puts himself/herself in a comfortable sitting position: back straight, feet on floor, palms on lap.

Remove from the mid whatever is there. Empty it.

Concentrate on the breathing. Slowly inhale deeply, exhale slowly. Do this several times.

Then the start of auto-suggestion progress. Begin from the top to the bottom.

Gently, you instruct the difficulty parts of your body to relax. Tell your head to relax. Be conscious that it relaxes; then the ears, the left then the right; the forehead, the eyes (left and right), nose , cheeks, lips, jaws, nape, shoulder, heart, arms, stomach, thighs, legs , feet, the nails.

When done daily, it is a big help.

In many cases, I instruct my heart to work with low energy so that it will not palpitate strongly. It is very helpful in all many emotionally-laden events I met.

Saba ang Estorya!
This bring me back again to my childhood years when I hear many young people complaining that their Lolo’s and Lola’s wake up early at dawn and talk until morning comes.

Well, I have experienced it myself and felt disturbed in my sleep. To think that young people may sleep late and how they love walking up late too.

Now the reality of the senior years. Sleeping early and waking up so early are part of our lives. For me, when I wake up early, I open the gospel book and read it slowly with meditation. Then I pray for adoration of God, followed by the thanksgiving for all the graces given until the day before. Then the prayer goes to the souls of the departed and those who are sick until I pray for the day. It is cool and calm at dawn which makes it so conducive to meditate. Seeing the dawn breaks is an ‘addictive’ ritual.

So back to the noise which the elderly couple make while they are conversing at dawn. Is it not nice to be aware of the strong love and bonding which the couple have? Talking to each other is a strong sign of how close two persons love each other for so many years. Definitely there is a need to diminish the disturbance. If the young ones accept the reality of the early waking and talking of the old ones, they then could tolerate. This awareness of both generation could make the noise more bearable. (Ma. Iris Melliza)