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Mental Wellbeing Blog - Aging Well With Marjorie
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Mental Wellbeing

Your thoughts, feelings, and actions, and the health of your brain

Aging Well with Marjorie offers a wealth of mental health resources to improve mental attitudes, emotional wellness, daily coping skills, adapting to change, brain health, and strategies to reduce the risk of dementia.

  • I’ve known for a long time that resiliency – the capacity to cope with whatever life throws at us – depends on personal characteristics and life circumstances. I am realizing now that resiliency helps...

    23 January, 2018

  • Guest Blog by Heather McNally * I am sure you want to keep your brain active and your memory sharp for as long as possible. It is exciting to realize there is scientific evidence that YOU CAN change y...

    02 January, 2018

  • Re: Nova Scotia’s recent budget: I can live with the tiny increase in health care, provided we change to a client-centred system to better meet health needs across the population. Client-centred...

    01 October, 2017

  • Our really ancient TV finally died, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the resulting creative burst that has opened up with that new space in my life....

    08 December, 2016

  • I was gratified to learn that my music-making effort “is the brain’s equivalent of a full-body workout” (Brain Pickings). This is because both left and right sides of the brain are called into play. L...

    22 November, 2016

  • Impulsiveness is a big component of procrastination for some people. The nearness of today’s temptation takes precedence over tomorrow’s distant, abstract goals, and we lack progress. Fortunately, we ...

    03 October, 2016

  • Life has various responsibilities that are no fun, so our procrastination may kick in and we put off doing what we need to do. As pointed out by Piers Steel, author of The Procrastination Equation *, ...

    23 September, 2016

  • If you expect you won’t succeed in something, you probably experience procrastination in that area of your life. Do you tell yourself, “I’ll never be able to [quit smoking, write that report, find a m...

    19 September, 2016

  • If you’ve been using your brain at some task and start to feel sluggish, a walk in nature may be just the thing to refresh and re-energize you. Spending time in nature also does other good things for ...

    12 September, 2016

  • In the youthful stage of my life, I was drawn to a friend’s poster, Bloom where you’re planted. It is still a sound piece of advice, and recently I’ve been thinking about its application to ever...

    06 September, 2016

  • Is procrastination a problem for you in some areas of your life but not others? Telling yourself you need to be in the “right frame of mind” to get something done, or that you “work better under press...

    23 August, 2016

  • Do you hold positive or negative views about aging? Is it better to be realistic about physical losses, or approach aging with an optimistic viewpoint? Here’s what a group of researchers from Germany,...

    19 July, 2016

  • I find it very reassuring that positive changes to the brain are possible even as we age. The potential for real change is within our grasp, due to the plasticity of the brain. ...

    16 June, 2016

  • I’ve had a too-full life recently, so today I’m reminding myself of the practical lessons in Getting Things Done, by David Allen, for better organizing my life. Here’s what he says about managing all ...

    24 May, 2016

  • What kind of life story would you write? As if you were a victim? Or maybe a hero? Or perhaps as a learner? Ed Bacon in his book, The 8 Habits of Love, points out that we can choose what kind of story...

    09 May, 2016

  • I’ve never thought of myself as courageous, but someone recently described me that way and it made me think of courage in a new light....

    03 May, 2016

  • How many habits do you have? In the first five minutes of getting up this morning, I counted six, and two of those could be broken down into several smaller habits, such as which order of clothing I p...

    28 March, 2016

  • What a shock you may feel when you first learn you have a chronic disease, or realize you have a chronic disability – “chronic” meaning that it goes on and on for more than a year. Why me? There may b...

    08 March, 2016

  • What a joy to learn that focusing on growing our strengths – rather than overcoming our weaknesses – is gaining ground. When I was a child, the emphasis from parents and teachers was that we needed to...

    29 February, 2016

  • I had such fun recently, trying out recreational folk dance. It really is true that dancing is one of those rare activities that contributes to physical, mental, and social wellbeing all at the same t...

    08 February, 2016

  • How often do you get trapped into overthinking, which Sonja Lyubomirsky describes as “thinking too much, needlessly, passively, endlessly, and excessively pondering the meanings, causes, and consequen...

    31 January, 2016

  • If you’re not happy, you can practice activities to become happier. According to researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness, 50% of happiness is our genetic set point – no chan...

    26 January, 2016

  • Don’t beat yourself up mentally if you’ve failed to live up to resolutions in the past. Instead, understand the process of change, so that you know which stage you’re at and whether or not you’re actu...

    05 January, 2016

  • Improving your relationships at home or at work? Quitting smoking? Eating healthier? Whatever you’re wanting to do, start with a plan to create a new habit and make it happen....

    07 December, 2015

  • Do you have fun and pleasure in your life? Something you look forward to? Gets rid of stress? Gives you joy and focus? Gets your mind off your troubles? If you do, you probably have a hobby! A very bu...

    02 December, 2015

  • Failure doesn’t exist for people with a growth mindset. Rather, they embrace challenges, learn from mistakes and failures, and continue to struggle and persevere in the face of difficulties. They reco...

    03 November, 2015

  • You’ll be wiser – and feel happier – when you realize that your thoughts aren’t facts, and they’re not necessarily true. Thoughts can be changed!...

    26 October, 2015

  • I realized recently that I could use more pleasure * in my life, and that got me interested in adult play. Never mind that play promotes creativity, problem-solving, social well-being, and improved br...

    13 October, 2015

  • Very sensitive people – “orchids” –  may be more vulnerable to anxiety and depression but, given the right environment, they may also be more resilient and have as good a chance – or better – of happi...

    21 September, 2015

  • I’ve been wondering just how long I need to keep working on myself to be a better person. When is enough, enough? The answer I came up with is that I think I will start to die inside the minute I stop...

    16 September, 2015

  • Transition to retirement is less traumatic if you plan ahead to have purpose and meaning in your life in later years. Even if you’re already retired, it’s not too late to make plans for your future. W...

    05 August, 2015

  • Taking time each day to write two pages about whatever is on your mind can be a real eye-opener. This morning I ran across some journaling I did nine years ago. I was amazed to discover that things th...

    08 July, 2015

  • Eleanor Roosevelt’s words above are right on target. When we stop engaging with others, and stop doing things that have meaning and purpose for us, we start to shrivel up. Our elder years can be a tim...

    04 June, 2015

  • Feeling sad and weepy at retirement is more common than you might think. Men especially may experience this, because they tend to have just a few roles outside of work other than husband, father, and ...

    28 May, 2015

  • Optimism and pessimism are familiar terms, but Martin P. Seligman has given us a richness of understanding in his book, “Learned Optimism”. And what about “cheerful pessimists” and “realistic optimist...

    30 April, 2015

  • We can’t always rely on our willpower for every situation or temptation. You might have also noticed yourself having a lot of willpower over one stretch of time, and then almost no willpower over anot...

    23 April, 2015

  • When you have a job to finish, is it better to motivate yourself by looking back at the part you’ve already done, or look ahead at what’s left to do? If you want your willpower to kick in, it’s better...

    20 April, 2015

  • The brain needs tasks to be finished. If you have uncompleted tasks or any unmet goals in your life, they have a strong tendency to keep popping up in your mind. We can clear our minds by writing down...

    16 April, 2015

  • Have you ever noticed your willpower fading as the day wears on? Maybe you find it harder to get things done. You might lose patience and snap at loved ones, or find your thoughts spiraling out of con...

    12 April, 2015

  • One tulip in bud – citing reported April 1 in Nova Scotia (no, not an April Fool’s joke). Thawed ground under the snow – reported April 4 in Halifax. This should come as no surprise,...

    05 April, 2015

  • Dogs have many things to teach us, if only we follow their example. Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride. Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstacy. W...

    10 March, 2015

  • If you want to have more positive feelings about caregiving, reduce your risk of becoming depressed and anxious, feel less frustrated or burdened, and feel better physically and emotionally, consider ...

    06 March, 2015

  • If you provide care for someone, you are not alone. In 2007, 2.7 million Canadians aged 45 and older – 1 in 5 – provided care or assistance to an older family member or friend. That works out to $24 t...

    01 March, 2015

  • Almost any move will likely entail de-cluttering and may include down-sizing. Even if you stay in place, think about the unfairness this would create for your children if you don’t de-clutter and they...

    28 January, 2015

  • Memory lapses are a normal part of aging. Knowing the kinds of memory we use can make it easier to understand which ones cause glitches for us, and what adjustments we can make to better manage our me...

    05 December, 2014

  • People fear dementia* much more than physical disability as they age. The thought of our mental faculties failing us is deeply disturbing, but in many cases we can reduce the risk, and delay or slow t...

    05 December, 2014

  • The thought of developing dementia is disturbing to just about all of us. Understanding normal changes in cognitive functioning as we age, particularly those pesky memory lapses, can help to calm our ...

    05 December, 2014

  • We learn better when we learn in sequence, rather than jumping back and forth between two or more sources of information.  That is why I have chosen to put any links in an article at the end, so that ...

    05 December, 2014