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Lessons for Senior Citizens

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Amazing. Link at the end leads to ten inspiring thoughts.

Subject: Lessons for Senior Citizens

This article is 3 years old - Dr Shigeaki Hinohara turned 100 on 4th October 2011





A 97 year old Doctor has this to say...

At the age of 97 years and 4 months, Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the world's longest-serving physicians and educators. Hinohara'smagic touch is legendary: Since 1941 he has been healing patients at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo and teaching at St. Luke's College of Nursing. After World War II, he envisioned a world-class hospital and college springing from the ruins ofTokyo; thanks to his pioneering spirit and business savvy, the doctor turned these institutions into the nation's top medical facility and nursing school. Today he serves as chairman of the board of trustees at both organizations. Always willing to try new things, he has published around 150 books since his 75th birthday, including one "Living Long, Living Good" that has sold more than 1.2 million copies. As the founder of the New Elderly Movement, Hinohara encourages others to live a long and happy life, a quest in which no role model is better than the doctor himself.

Doctor Shigeaki Hinohara


Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot. We all remember how as children, when we were having fun, we often forgot to eat or sleep. I believe that we can keep that attitude as adults, too. It's best not to tire the body with too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime.


All people who live long regardless of nationality, race or gender share one thing in common: None are overweight... For breakfast I drink coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon of olive oil in it. Olive oil is great for the arteries and keeps my skin healthy. Lunch is milk and a few cookies, or nothing when I am too busy to eat. I never get hungry because I focus on my work. Dinner is veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean meat..



Always plan ahead. My schedule book is already full until 2014, with lectures and my usual hospital work. In 2016 I'll have some fun, though: I plan to attend the Tokyo Olympics!


There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65. The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago, when the average life-expectancy in Japan was 68 years and only 125 Japanese were over 100 years old. Today, Japanese women live to be around 86 and men 80, and we have 36,000 centenarians in our country. In 20 years we will have about 50,000 people over the age of 100.


Share what you know.I give 150 lectures a year, some for 100 elementary-school children, others for 4,500 business people. I usually speak for 60 to 90 minutes, standing, to stay strong.



When a doctor recommends you take a test or have some surgery, ask whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go through such a procedure.Contrary to popular belief, doctors can't cure everyone. So why cause unnecessary pain with surgery I think music and animal therapy can help more than most doctors imagine.


To stay healthy, always take the stairs and carry your own stuff. I take two stairs at a time, to get my muscles moving.


My inspiration is Robert Browning's poem "Abt Vogler. "My father used to read it to me. It encourages us to make big art, not small scribbles. It says to try to draw a circle so huge that there is no way we can finish it while we are alive. All we see is an arch; the rest is beyond our vision but it is there in the distance.



Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it. If a child has a toothache, and you start playing a game together, he or she immediately forgets the pain. Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients: We all want to have fun. At St. Luke's we have music and animal therapies, and art classes.



Don't be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don't know when your number is up, and you can't take it with you to the next place.


Hospitals must be designed and prepared for major disasters, and they must accept every patient who appears at their doors.
We designed St.... Luke's so we can operate anywhere: in the basement, in the corridors, in the chapel. Most people thought I was crazy to prepare for a catastrophe, but on March 20, 1995, I was unfortunately proven right when members of the Aum Shinrikyu religious cult launched a terrorist attack in the Tokyosubway. We accepted 740 victims and in two hours figured out that it was sarin gas that had hit them. Sadly we lost one person, but we saved 739 lives.



Science alone can't cure or help people. Science lumps us all together, but illness is individual. Each person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts. To know the illness and help people, we need liberal and visual arts, not just medical ones.



Life is filled with incidents. On March 31, 1970, when I was 59 years old, I boarded the Yodogo, a flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and as Mount Fuji came into sight, the plane was hijacked by the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. I spent the next four days handcuffed to my seat in 40-degree heat. As a doctor, I looked at it all as an experiment and was amazed at how the body slowed down in a crisis.



Find a role model and aim to achieve even more than they could ever do. My father went to the United States in 1900 to study atDuke University in North Carolina. He was a pioneer and one of my heroes. Later I found a few more life guides, and when I am stuck, I ask myself how they would deal with the problem.


It's wonderful to live long. Until one is 60 years old, it is easy to work for one's family and to achieve one's goals. But in our later years, we should strive to contribute to society. Since the age of 65, I have worked as a volunteer. I still put in 18 hours seven days a week














Living Happily, Living Long
 
Dear Sarang Sir,

Thanks a lot for posting this... amazing reading and i have resolved to follow atleast two or three in his points.. So inspirational...

Cheers
 
Lessons for Senior Citizens.

Thank you very much sri.Sarang.After reading this message,now at 75, I feel very young.Age is only in our mind set.As long as we try and keep our physical and mental faculties "Alert",age is NOT a negative factor.
 
There are many ways for the elders to be active and worry-less. If one is possesses
good and sound health, can do part time job of their liking by sitting in the
house or in the nearby place. One can join voluntary groups like Sathya Sai Sang
and do service at leisure hours to keep oneself busy. One can spend some time
with the most loved people and play with kids at home. Some can also do
little exercise or go through the newspaper or magazine, where puzzles, sodukku,
crosswords are given. If one is proficient in any subject, can teach the children who
have no source to spend money towards tuition viz. free coaching service. If
some one is interested in religious books, they can spend sometime in reading books
or doing prayer, worship, etc. Morning walk can be very useful to make one active
and to keep the physique in trim condition. One can do service in Baba Temples,
if it is one nearby or do service in any Temple nearby, which indirectly facilitates one
earn God's acceptance through a good life or a moral philosophy. Because, God loves
so much that everyone who believes in HIM will not perish but have good and peaceful
eternal life.

Balasubramanian
Ambattur
 
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Dear Shri Sarang

Very nice article for Senior Citizens. I am inspired by the contents and so, I am planning to do some voluntary service for a couple of hours daily.

KR SUBRAHMANYAM
Secunderabad.
 
Very interesting and very different thinking, sounds to be true. I think this should catch the young or adolescent. Grown up or middle aged or retired people with restrictions should cautiously try this or give up this otherwise.
 
Very touching and inspirational story. Thanks for posting.

Regards
Amirtha
 
The elders of the family, in the role of parents, have been giving adequate opportunity to their children
to have an organized life through good education so as to earn a decent living. Once they are grown up
setting aside their social problems, youngsters have to realize that they have an unfailing duty to care for
their parents and the other elders in the family. Now a days, people do not like joint family system. But

[TD="width: 100%"]the joint family system has lot of advantages as the experience of elders, such as handling and taking care
of the children, looking after the house hold activities and their advice to the youngsters to correct them
if they commit any mistakes. Besides, they are not left alone. This would give them a feeling of togetherness[/TD]

[TD="width: 100%"]and would give them a mental strength of their physical well-being. This also facilitates to take care of them
during the period of sickness and during other period when they actually need any assistance, the younger
generation will be able to take care of them immediately without any delay, also facilitating a special bonding
that enriches the lives of each other. Sometimes social and family situations act as a barrier against the joint
family system. Only in unavoidable circumstances, it is better that the youngsters can live separately but in a close
proximity. This makes the way for a cordial relationship and does not bring any ill feeling between the youngsters
and elders. However, efforts have to be made to meet each other once in a week or as frequently as possible
along with the children and talk to one another. The attitude towards elders has to be changed completely.
[/TD]

[TD="width: 100%"]The younger generation has to be told in an understandable manner to respect the elders
and make use of their past experience. At no time, the youngsters try to neglect them and have to
understand the feelings and sentiments of the elders.[/TD]

[TD="width: 100%"]To be very precise, the wisdom and their experience may be quite useful to solve the trivial issues.
It is more important to show them affection and respect. Domestic problems can be discussed with the elders
periodically, so that it would give them a feeling that they are treated as part of the family. There is no
necessity to accept them in toto but can be implemented whatever possible. This gives a feeling that
they have been consulted. This method prevents a conflict between the elders and the youngsters.
One should not forget that the wheel of life is constant. In the Vedas, it is clearly mentioned that devotion to
elders is like devotion to God. Similarly, one has to look for socio-economic conditions.
[/TD]

[TD="width: 100%"][/TD]

[TD="width: 100%"]Elders have also to adjust these days and may not interfere in the day to day affairs and problems of their
children's routine affairs. Unless asked for, they too have to patiently refrain from giving any advice. They
should not compare the attitude of the youngsters of today with their own attitude when they were young.
They could try to assist in the day to day affairs of the family, like taking the grandchildren to school, doing
other activities that they can do provided health permits. Interaction with the grandchildren may refresh
the minds of the elders. Though some people prefer to be left alone, in such cases, they may be permitted
to stay away
[/TD]
 
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It may be different in the South. But in urban areas up here children are conscious of so many desirable and undesirable things. They seem to be happy when those who escort them to school are young and attractive or well-dressed up. Some children do not bother. There seems to be a lack of parents' involvement in making a rapport between the "grand" sides. Again GFs/GPs should forget their past and identify themselves with the future, i.e. the grand children.
 
hi

Don't be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don't know when your number is up, and you can't take it with you to the next place.


we always think more abt physical age and material progress......our hindu varnasrama dharma...really worked...like brahmacharya/

grihastha/vaanaprastha/sanyasa...now all ashramas coruupted and mostly never followed....the newton's third law...

each and every action has opposite and equal reaction...
 
hi

Don't be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don't know when your number is up, and you can't take it with you to the next place.


we always think more abt physical age and material progress......our hindu varnasrama dharma...really worked...like brahmacharya/

grihastha/vaanaprastha/sanyasa...now all ashramas coruupted and mostly never followed....the newton's third law...

each and every action has opposite and equal reaction...

Shri tbs

That's what I think about the whole poorva janma karma theory.

Regards
Amirtha
 
hi
i think newton got it from hindus poorva janma karma theory....law and cause effect....

May be. Remember at one stage most of the people in the world turned to India for knolwedge and prosperity? The problem with Indians, we do not know how to excel ourselves without prejudices. We entangle with ourselves so many negative thinking. and taboos. I think for Indians Newton theory works in oposite direction with accelerated force. ah.. ah..

Kind Regards
Amirtha
 
hi

Don't be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don't know when your number is up, and you can't take it with you to the next place.

But if we choose to get married and have children we have the responsibility to provide for them and not make them suffer when we are dead and gone.
It is just that moderation is the key.
 
Dear Renuka,

You are absolutely right. Our life is not our's alone....linked with family and so many others. When we have children we have to take care of them, educate them and make them well settled. We have to do all this before our expiry date. Nothing wrong in having materialistic things. Only thing is that that should not be the sole aim of life and we should not go crazy after them
 
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