Stress Well, Age Well

Aging is a verb. It’s something we do. At life plan communities like Bayview, we do it together. We also “do” liminality together, because I believe that aging is a liminal state, a state of in between, the threshold between where we were and we’re we’ll be. Liminality brings great freedom and opportunity, but it can also be unsettling and frankly a little scary. We are comfortable with known guardrails and limits. Remove all that and we can feel unmoored. Being in community can anchor us in the midst of stress.

Stress can be negative (distress) or positive (eustress). As we age, we certainly experience periods of distress. But we also experience times of eustress, such as learning a new skill, adapting to a new environment, volunteering or mentoring. Tapping into our cognitive and emotional muscle promotes their growth. Physical exercise is also a form of eustress – working our physical muscles promotes their growth as well. In other words, aging creates opportunities for eustress, which allows us to grow new habits of thought and behaviors that serve us well as we evolve into our older selves. And it certainly delights me to share those opportunities abound at life plan communities like Bayview.

The liminal space of aging can be stressful. But how we process that stress can make a difference in how well we age. Liminality is the threshold, one that contains eustress and distress. Will we leverage eustress to fuel us, or dwell in the negativity of distress to diminish us? Aging is not a choice but how we contextualize and process its stressors is a choice. I choose to fiercely inhabit the threshold and grow. I hope you join me.

Nancy Weinbeck

Bayview CEO

Originally posted on Queen Anne & Magnolia News