The Healthy Aging Series by Mark Neese at True North Counseling

An Interlude: What a Fox and a Horse have to Say About Agism | Healthy Aging Series: Season 9, Episode 11

Look in the mirror. What do you see? You might see your mother or father. I do. I try remembering when my father was my age. My father was 30 years older than me, so I was 37 when he was 67, the age that I am now. That was 1993. I had moved to…

The Healthy Aging Series by Mark Neese at True North Counseling

Strategies for Breaking Up, Part 3 | Healthy Aging Series: Season 9, Episode 10

What Was the one Moment That Changed Your Life? I tell my sons and granddaughters that they are here today because the Navy Recruiter had gone to lunch. Let me explain. I graduated from high school in 1974. Geez, I’m getting old, yay. I went to work with my father and Jackson Engineering after high…

The Healthy Aging Series by Mark Neese at True North Counseling

Strategies for Breaking Up, Part 2 | Healthy Aging Series: Season 9, Episode 9

Breaking Up with Food by Using Self-Binding Strategies “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in an Age of Indulgence,” by Anna Lembke My wife and I love to use bed and breakfasts when we travel. We stayed in one called Cactus Cove in Tucson on one of our recent trips. We had a desert view of the…

Strategies for Breaking Up, Part 1 | Healthy Aging Series: Season 9, Episode 8

Why Can’t I Stay Broke Up? Because You Got Issues! I’ve been a therapist for almost 30 years. It’s hard to believe. In those early years, I trained as a Child and Family Therapist. Lots of parent trainings. For many of the children, I became a surrogate father. I would take them on walks through…

What’s the Hardest Thing You’ve Done? | Healthy Aging Series: Season 9, Episode 7

What’s the Hardest Thing You’ve Done? Seven days. Six nights. 17000+/- ft. of elevation. 41 miles. 45 lbs. Minus 2 toenails. One of the hardest things I’ve done. The Grand Canyon. I wanted to test myself. What a better place to do that than the Grand Canyon. It was 2009. I was 52 years old,…

The Real Mr. Miyagi: How to Die Badly! | Healthy Aging Series: S8, E6

“He described himself as a unique drunk. He could work almost every day, and no one would know it.” “I’m drunk almost every day.” Pat Morita. Mr. Miyagi. I’m guessing most of you have heard his name. He taught Daniel LaRusso karate in the three karate kid movies. Such a great character, and Pat Morita…

How to Escape the Rat Race | Healthy Aging Series: S8, E5

This blog will examine the work, “The Country Chronical,” by Gladys Tabor I love sleeping in a tent, especially when it’s raining. I’ve had a few unpleasant experiences camping. Mostly I love it. I’ve slept through a blizzard in the Sierra mountains. Woke up to a foot of snow. I’ve slept through a “no see…

The Healthy Aging Series by Mark Neese at True North Counseling

How to Finish the Race of Life | Healthy Aging Series: S8, E4

This blog will continue examine the work, “Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study,”  written by George E. Vaillant. How do we sucessfully finish the race of life?  Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence see life as a competition. Johnny is “jelly” because Daniel has a beautiful family, a very successful car dealership,…

Can You Outrun a Bad Diet? | Healthy Aging Series: S8, E3

Reading time: 4 minutes. Can You Outrun a Bad Diet? Endurance athletes have one thing in common. Regardless of age, they run to eat! I can remember finishing a long training run for the Air Force Marathon, and remember finishing my summit to the top of Mount Whitney. I remember backpacking out of the Grand…

Healthy Aging: Physical Resiliency “The older the house more the maintenance.”

“The Older The House, More The Maintenance” | Healthy Aging Series: Part 13

(Read the last paragraph first!) I remember sitting in a classroom at Portland Community College, Portland Oregon (pronounced aw-ruh-gun, not aw-ruh-gone). It was 1979. The Class was Lifespan Development. The instructor was John Lawrence. The first words out of his mouth were, “The older the house the more the maintenance.” Since then, I’ve owned an…