Aging gracefully exposes intricate journey of life, by Michael Olatunbosun |

The book for today discusses in great detail the processes of becoming older. And it helps the reader to place, in proper perspective, issues around aging. The book is titled: “Aging Gracefully,” and the author is Bolanle Lana. It was published in 2021 by Bibliophillia. 

Bolanle Lana is a qualified nurse and healthcare practitioner with decades of service in the health sector. She has worked as a consultant to governments and many organisations across the globe, including UNFPA, NURHI and UNICEF, among others. She has also authored many publications and papers.

In this book, Lana addresses fundamental issues, challenges, and changes that people have to contend with as they grow and age. 

Thus, most of the issues here have to do with physiological and psychological aspects of old age.

To begin with, the author employs the analogy of the plantain as encapsulated by the Yoruba to portray the natural process of aging. She quotes: “Ògèdè nbàjé, a ní ó ńpón,” meaning: “A plantain is going bad, but we’re rejoicing that it is ripening.” In other words, we learn that our exposure to toxins, the sun, some of the harmful foods we eat, pollution, and smoke, among other things, causes damage in the body and eventually makes it difficult for the body to maintain or repair cells, tissues and organs. This is essentially what causes aging.

Arising from that, the author explains that there are three kinds of aging: biological, psychological and social.

For the author, life is a gift from God, and as such, it should be lived to the fullest. In other words, you should not be driven by guilt, resentment and anger, fear and materialism or the need for approval. These things deprive you from enjoying life.

And the strong homily in this work is that you should value who you are, avoid any form of worry and be satisfied with who you are. In addition to that, the author admonishes the reader to learn to live with passion, more laughter, let go and make other people happy.

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In this book, the author writes about the role of the mind in aging. She writes that your thinking, and emotions will affect how you age. Thus she dedicates a large amount of space to how you can manage your emotions, rather than submit to it.

In this book, the author avers that with aging comes some changes in the body. She maintains that those who tie their self-esteem to body image will put themselves at grave disadvantage, because their self-esteem will decline as their body does. She therefore counsels the reader to reject the stereotypical expectations of old age, embrace good hygiene, healthy diet, regular physical activities and continually stay curious. She also prescribes social consciousness as a safeguard against low self-esteem. 

This eight chapter book contains large doses of expert counsel to people to help them enjoy their advanced years. She writes that you need to eat healthy food and spells out the benefits of regular exercise, especially for people suffering from Arthritis. She has tips on how to maintain physical and mental health, and how to deal with menopause and andropause, as well as how to care for your skin.

This 60-page book is a great exposé on the intricate journey of life especially for those in their middle age and over. It is well written and simply laid out for the enlightenment of the general reading public. 

. Olatunbosun can be reached via 0802-351-7565 (SMS and WhatsApp only) and [email protected].

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