Welcome to Blooming with Care

Hello World!

This blog space is called Blooming with Care because we are not just aging, we are BLOOMING. Care means to take care and my hope is that this blog encourages us all to take better care of ourselves. May this space be a sacred space where the science of aging sits with the research on mindfulness. Also, Care is short for Caroline Woodard. That’s me, my dearest friends and family call me Care. I have been a physical therapist for over 30 years. I work with seniors, improving their strength and balance; also healing aches and pains with manual treatments.  I have been drawn to the older population all my Life.

When I was 2 years old, we lived in the Bronx, NYC. Every day, my Mom took me to the park, where I would run right up to  the elderly and walk or sit with them, sometimes holding their hands. The other mothers were horrified, telling my Mom it was too dangerous and she needed to teach me to be afraid of strangers. Wise woman my Mom… she knew I was safe, she was right behind me. She thought, how could she stop something that was bringing such joy into older people’s lives. I hope to bring joy now too at the age of 52! Many changes are happening with my body, and each thing intrigues me. Here, we go together, on a journey to discover the science behind aging and examine the ways we have to stem the tide and age with grace and joy, independence and strength.

“Look around. Look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.” ~ Hamilton, The Musical.

I know at 52, I don’t have very much experience of my own about aging. It’s a little bit like when I was pregnant with our first child; SO excited and wearing a maternity dress after only one month! But I have been so blessed to meet some incredible and inspiring older people and I will introduce you to them as we go along.

We are so lucky to be growing older at this time in history. Research comes out almost daily on aging and on how to lead happier lives. We are witnessing the interface between western medicine and eastern medicine, and it is at this junction between the two philosophies that the greatest progress will be made in our day to day lives as we age. Miracles abound.

I’ll leave you today with one of my favorite balance studies where  researchers compared 30 yr olds and 70 yr olds on balance boards. The two groups were equally balanced until they were all given a math problem and then the 70 year olds fell off. What is the science behind the results…? When we are younger, balance is controlled primarily by the cerebellum, which means it is reflexive and we don’t have to think about it. As we age, balance becomes mainly controlled by the frontal lobe, which means we have to concentrate on it. This is incredibly hopeful to me. When we are young, we are wired to do multiple tasks at once; as we age, we need to concentrate on the task we are presently doing. Have you heard of mindfulness…? In a nutshell, mindfulness means that we are more deeply happy and peace filled if we can train our brains to stay in the present moment and not let our minds run constantly back over the past or wonder and worry about the future. Our bodies actually change with age in ways that nudge us toward mindfulness! We have to concentrate on the actual step we are taking and not do 5 things at once. What a gift!  

Eckhart Tolle said, “ Old age, if one is lucky enough to be old, is the flowering of consciousness.”  

That is the work we are doing … flowering.

Welcome to Blooming with Care! Be well, my flowering friends.