The book ‘The Japanese lover’ by Isabel Illende, one of my favorite authors,  is finally out in paperback, and I can’t wait to read it. She published an interview in the wonderful Lenny Letter (Lena Dunham’s news Letter ).

In the interview, she says: “ When you turn 70, everybody looks at you as if you were already decrepit. I’m not. I feel 50. Most people feel younger than their age, but the culture values youth, success, beauty, productivity. There is no space in this culture for older people.”

for centauries people viewed life this way:

“You’re born, have a wonderful but brief childhood (which you refer to as “the best time of your life”, regardless the facts), you spend a few years looking and feeling great, go through 2 decades of constant stress, then you hit middle age and slowly sink into loneliness, boredom, routine of early nights and even earlier mornings, shuffling aimlessly around the house in slippers watching the paint dry. If you’re lucky, you grow old in your place of choice, if you’re not, you end up in your worst case scenario – you can all fill in the blanks”

But in the past generation, things have changed. Old people are having the time of their lives, traveling (my kids have a t-shirt from mount Machu Picchu, with the saying: “my grandmother went to Machu Picchu and all I got is this lousy T-shirt), eating out, catching the best shows, sharp as tacks and… looking nothing like their biological age.

Interestingly, this change is reflected by a huge amount of research and new statistics that changes everything we’ve been brought up to believe about old age (“Nearly 75 percent of men and 70 percent of women reported that their sex lives after 60 were better than they had been in their forties…”)

This week’s lesson is about creating an ideal retirement. We’ll talk about the overlooked advantages of growing old, where would be the best place to spend your last years and how new technologies can be used to make life easier for senior citizens.

click here For purchesing this lesson – or go to my TPT store for more lessons