Rejuvenation Podcast

Trying to practice what we preach, Tim and I are keen to use all modern media to broadcast our message - blogs, websites, iphone apps, online e-zines - as well as more traditional media - videos, radio and press. I recently recorded a podcast with Anna Farmery of 'The Engaging Brand' talking about rejuvenation. Hope you enjoy it!

Sixtyplusurfers - website for the over 60s

We follow many blogs, journals and twitters to keep abreast of ageing and staying young. One of the best is Sixtyplusurfers. We asked the features editor, Jenny Itzcovitz, to describe what they are about. Here's what she said:

If you are new to using the internet or looking for an easy to use website for the over 60s, then take a look at http://www.sixtyplusurfers.co.uk/

Sixtyplusurfers has a brand new issue every month with free to enter competitions, articles about health, fitness, crafts and hobbies, homes and gardens, fashion, beauty, travel, food and drink, pet care, camera and computer tips, money saving ideas, news and book reviews, music and entertainment. There's something for everyone.

Sixtyplusurfers also has its own Chat and Socialise page where you can talk to other readers from around the world, post your own blogs, send in your photographs. Everyone is friendly and its lot's of fun too.

Finally there's our own celebrity chef - Phil Vickery - prize draws and lots of ideas to keep you entertained during your retirement!

What do your music choices say about you?

A quick personal anecdote. A good friend of mine is in his twenties and I shared some of my music recently. His reaction: this is OLD music!

Instinctively I got rather defensive. No, I said, it's not 'old' music it's simply great quality music. It just happens to come from a few years back, that's all. Only later did I recognise my own 'old brain' thinking. Yes, I love all the music on my iphone and yes it is all high quality to my ears. BUT. Most of it dates from the last century.

So, what do my musical choices reveal? Is it possible that no quality music has been released over the last decade? Rather unlikely. The hard lesson is that my choices said something rather hurtful about me: I'd somehow closed down, stopped being open to new influences, preferred to live in a nostalgic past than head for tomorrow's world.

So, now my earphones are buzzing to lots of great new stuff: it was out there all the time - I just had to be 'young brained' enough to be receptive.

More hope for middle aged brains

Finally, scientific proof that our brains do not decay into middle age; in fact many cognitive functions improve between 40-65 years old. We get better at:

• Recognising patterns


• Sizing up situations


• Financial decisions


• Verbal reasoning


• Drawing appropriate conclusions.

This is good news - but there is great variability in people's brain functioning too. To keep brains healthy requires what one researcher called 'disorienting dilemmas'. In other words, we need to keep our brains uncomfortable by being open to change, open to others and action oriented. These are key themes in 'You can be a young as you think'.

For more about the middle aged brain, listen to this podcast by Barbara Strauch. It is uplifting and inspiring. Never again will you be able to blame negativity and fuzzy logic on your brains' biological decline. http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2011/the-secret-life-of-the-grown-up-brain

Launch of iPhone app

People love quizzes, especially, it seems, when the results tell them something they didn't know about themselves.

Our Brain Age Test is no exception - and we've had universally positive comments since we laid out 12 simple questions in our book 'You Can Be As Young As You Think.

So, we wanted to give as many people as possible the chance to have a go and put their brain to the test.

It's great, therefore, to be able to announce that our iPhone app is now written and will soon be available through the Apple iTunes App Store. You can download it for FREE.